Influence of different iron availability on phosphoenolpiruvate carboxilase and malate dehydrogenase in roots of maize (Zea Mays L.) plants grown under iron deficiency

The effect of the different nitrate availability on some enzymatic activities has been evaluated in iron deficient and iron sufficient maize plants (Zea mays L.). In order to evaluate if the induction of sensitive to pH enzymatic activities is affected by the variation of the apoplast reaction due to the different nitrate availability, two experimental tests were done on maize plants grown in nutrient solution with different NO3- availability and with Fe-sufficiency (+Fe) (added with 80 uM Fe(III)-EDTA) and Fe-deficiency (-Fe) (added with 0.1 uM Fe(III)-EDTA).
As regards 0.4 mM NO3- (NS2), independently of iron availability, phosphoenolpiruvate carboxilase and malate dehydrogenase inductions are higher than those recorded for the experiment with 4.0 mM NO3-. The two activities, for the reaction determined in citosol by NO3- uptake, show different responses according to Fe availability. In NS1 the higher nitrate uptake and the contemporaneous H+ incoming cause in (+Fe) plants a decrease of PEP-carboxilase activation and, during the first 24 hours, of malate dehydrogenase. The shifting of the peak of maximum activity shows that iron deficiency conditions, interfering with e- transport, determinate a slowing down of the enzyme induction, independently of nitrate availability. In NS2, PEPcase is higher under Fe-deficiency and malate dehydrogenase is higher under Fe-sufficiency, both during the first 24 hours.
The different nitrate availability causes a different use of the acid content. In fact, in NS1 citric content, precursor of molecules for the production of phytosiderophores, increased in (-Fe) theses. On the contrary, low nitrate availabilities determined a decrease in acid contents, mostly in (-Fe) theses. This result justifies the higher energy demand to activate membrane carriers under stress conditions for the reduced nitrate availability.
&#xa

Ouabain-induced cytoplasmic vesicles and their role in cell volume maintenance

Cellular swelling is controlled by an active mechanism of cell volume regulation driven by a Na+/K+-dependent ATPase and by aquaporins which translocate water along the osmotic gradient. Na+/K+-pump may be blocked by ouabain, a digitalic derivative, by inhibition of ATP, or by drastic ion alterations of extracellular fluid. However, it has been observed that some tissues are still able to control their volume despite the presence of ouabain, suggesting the existence of other mechanisms of cell volume control. In 1977, by correlating electron microscopy observation with ion and water composition of liver slices incubated in differentmetabolic conditions in the presence or absence of ouabain, we observed that hepatocytes were able to control their volume extruding water and recovering ion composition in the presence of ouabain. In particular, hepatocytes were able to sequester ions and water in intracellular vesicles and then secrete themat the bile canaliculus pole.We named this “vesicularmechanismof cell volume control.” Afterward, thismechanism has been confirmed by us and other laboratories in several mammalian tissues.This review summarizes evidences regarding this mechanism, problems that are still pending, and questions that need to be answered. Finally, we shortly review the importance of cell volume control in some human pathological conditions

Interaction ammonium-nitrate: Response to oxidative stress in chicory plants

The aim of this work was to study, as a function of the different availability of nitrogen in the reduced form, mineral and organic, the induction of the synthesis of some ROS-scavenging molecules and the evolution of some enzymatic activities such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and polyphenoloxidase (PPO). 
Chicory seedlings were grown in nutritive solution for 35 days in controlled conditions. On the 14th day, one third of the plants was transferred into a nutritive solution containing (NH4)2SO4 60 mM, one third was transferred into a medium containing Urea 60 mM, and the remaining was let grow into the nutrition solution, as a control. Three samplings of leaves were performed, respectively after 21, 28 and 35 days of growth.
The urea and ammonium sulphate-treated samples showed higher ascorbic acid and polyphenol contents than the control, together with a lower anthocyanins content. APX showed the highest activity in the urea-treated samples, while the highest PPO activity was to refer to samples treated with ammonium sulphate.
The variations of the organic components showed the incidence of the nitrogen supply in the reduced form on the cell redox potential, confirming the importance of fertilization for obtaining high amounts of antioxidant molecules.
&#xa

Modeling Resilience of Collaborative AI Systems

A Collaborative Artificial Intelligence System (CAIS) performs actions in collaboration with the human to achieve a common goal. CAISs can use a trained AI model to control human-system interaction, or they can use human interaction to dynamically learn from humans in an online fashion. In online learning with human feedback, the AI model evolves by monitoring human interaction through the system sensors in the learning state, and actuates the autonomous components of the CAIS based on the learning in the operational state. Therefore, any disruptive event affecting these sensors may affect the AI model's ability to make accurate decisions and degrade the CAIS performance. Consequently, it is of paramount importance for CAIS managers to be able to automatically track the system performance to understand the resilience of the CAIS upon such disruptive events. In this paper, we provide a new framework to model CAIS performance when the system experiences a disruptive event. With our framework, we introduce a model of performance evolution of CAIS. The model is equipped with a set of measures that aim to support CAIS managers in the decision process to achieve the required resilience of the system. We tested our framework on a real-world case study of a robot collaborating online with the human, when the system is experiencing a disruptive event. The case study shows that our framework can be adopted in CAIS and integrated into the online execution of the CAIS activities.Comment: This paper is accepted at the 3rd International Conference on AI Engineering - Software Engineering for AI (CAIN 2024), Lisbon, Portuga

Methodological approach for a sustainable management of water inflow and geothermal energy in tunnels

It is quite unusual to consider the exploitation of geothermal resources during at the tunnel design stage. This paper is intended to analyse the nature and the potential of the geothermal resources. These are essentially the hot or cold water in ow and the temperature of the surrounding ground itself. A methodological approach is proposed to face the problem, determine relevant information and estimate the attractive- ness of the application. The approach is then applied to the case study of the metro line Dudullu-Bostanci in Istanbul, currently under design, by identifying a possible application of heat exchangers integrated into the tunnel lining and evaluating preliminarily the environmental and economical aspects

One special question to start with: can HIF/NFkB be a target in inflammation?

Hypoxia and Inflammation are strictly interconnected with important consequences at clinical and therapeutic level. While cell and tissue damage due to acute hypoxia mostly leads to cell necrosis, in chronic hypoxia, cells that are located closer to vessels are able to survive adapting their phenotype through the expression of a number of genes, including proinflammatory receptors for alarmins. These receptors are activated by alarmins released by necrotic cells and generate signals for master transcription factors such as NFkB, AP1, etc. which control hundreds of genes for innate immunity and damage repair. Clinical consequences of chronic inflammatory reparative response activation include cell and tissue remodeling, damage in the primary site and, the systemic involvement of distant organs and tissues. Thus every time a tissue environment becomes stably hypoxic, inflammation can be activated followed by chronic damage and cell death or repair with vessel proliferation and fibrosis. This pathway can occur in cancer, myocardial infarction and stroke, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic and autoimmune diseases and age-related diseases. Interestingly, proinflammatory gene expression can be observed earlier in hypoxic tissue cells and, in addition, in activated resident or recruited leukocytes. Herewith, the reciprocal relationships between hypoxia and inflammation will be shortly reviewed to underline the possible therapeutic targets to control hypoxia-related inflammation in a number of epidemiologically important human diseases and conditions