Effects of somatic embryogenesis on gene expression of cloned coffee heterozygous hybrids.

Cloning of superior coffee plants by somatic embryogenesis can assist breeding programs on reducing the cost and time for launch of new cultivars. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of this methodology for cloning coffee trees with high heterozygosity, and to gather evidence that clonal progenies are faithful copies of mother plants. Selected plants IAC1 and IAC 2 from Coffea arabica breeding populations, resistant to leaf rust and leaf miner, respectively, were cloned via indirect somatic embryogenesis. Expression of selected genes involved in biological processes potentially affected by in vitro cultivation was evaluated by quantitative analysis. Genes encoding proteins associated with maintenance of DNA integrity and control of cell cycle presented predictable expression patterns along the clonal multiplication process. There were differences in the expression pattern of genes linked to in vitro cultivation-related stress, which were observed comparing either IAC 1 and IAC2 genotypes or clones and their corresponding mother plant. Those analyses suggest that the somatic embryogenesis does not lead to major genomic instability and clones are identical copies of mother plants, even with detected differences in the expression of genes that influence the response of in vitro cultivation

Influence of allergen avoidance on the eosinophil phase of airway inflammation in children with allergic asthma

BACKGROUND: Exposure to relevant allergens causes an increase in bronchial hyperresponsiveness, as well as an inflammatory reaction at the site of the bronchial mucosa in patients with asthma. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether antigen avoidance can exert an antiinflammatory effect on the eosinophil phase of airway inflammation in children with asthma. METHODS: The level of bronchial hyperreactivity and the percentage of eosinophils in sputum samples obtained by inhalation of hypertonic saline solution, were evaluated in a group of asthmatic children allergic to house dust mite before and after a period of antigen avoidance in an Alpine environment (1756 m). RESULTS: At the end of the avoidance period PC20 increased from a median value (lower and upper quartile: Q1, Q3) of 1.17 (0.74, 4.75) to 3.5 (1.18, 8.87) mg/ml (p = 0.02), and eosinophil percentage in the sputum decreased from a median value (Q1, Q3) of 14.02 (3.34, 28.24) to 2.08 (0, 7.4) (p less than 0.01). CONCLUSION: A 3-month period of antigen avoidance can significantly reduce the eosinophil phase of airway inflammation, along with bronchial hyperresponsiveness, in patients with asthma

DETECTION OF LAND COVER DISPLACEMENTS THROUGH TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS OF MULTISPECTRAL SATELLITE IMAGERY: APPLICATION TO DESERT

Detection of changes occurring on Earth surface has become an established practice in remote sensing science since the availability of high-resolution, global coverage, and multitemporal satellite imagery that has constantly increased during the last decades. Meanwhile, the open data policies embraced by some of the principal Earth Observation programs have boosted the spread of such analyses. This asset has attracted also the interest of the private sector which is developing strategies to exploit the potential of these data. In view of the above, we present an experimental procedure to investigate land cover displacements through an application on open multispectral imagery from the Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 missions for desert sand dunes movements analysis. While most of the change detection techniques focus on locating changes and describing them by means of variation in the pixel spectral responses, the proposed technique aims at describing spatial and temporal patterns of displacements (i.e. directions and magnitude) applying cross-correlation analysis on a multitemporal images stack. Results of the proposed analysis are critical to a number of construction engineering operations that require sand mitigation planning and continuous site monitoring to prevent windblown sand interactions with infrastructures in the desert environment. An overview of the preliminary results is presented together with an extensive discussion on further improvements requested by the procedure. Computational steps leverage exclusively open data and free and open source GIS software thus providing large rooms to empower, replicate and improve thereof

Effect on cortical and trabecular bone mass of different anti-inflammatory treatments in preadolescent children with chronic asthma.

Bone metabolism and density have been shown to be abnormal in adult asthmatic patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids. Because the largest increases in bone growth and mineral deposition occur during childhood and adolescence, we performed a cross-sectional evaluation of cortical and trabecular bone mass by dual-photon absorptiometry at the proximal one third of the radius (cortical bone) and by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at the L2-L4 lumbar spine (trabecular bone) in 64 prepubertal asthmatic children receiving beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) or cromolyn sodium (CS). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was performed by anteroposterior scan and also by lateral vertebral scan in order to exclude the posterior elements of the vertebrae, which are composed mainly of cortical bone and which are less sensitive to the negative effect of steroids. Furthermore, we calculated "volumetric" bone density, dividing lateral mineral content by the vertebral volume. Bone mineral areal density and volume bone density did not differ in children receiving BDP for 6.7 +/- 1.3 mo at a mean dose of 319.3 +/- 130 micrograms/d compared with those in children treated with CS. Furthermore, anteroposterior bone density in our study population was in agreement with published normative data and with that of normal age-related healthy nonasthmatic children living in the same area and with the same dietary intake of calcium. No normal values are available for lateral and calculated-volume bone density. In conclusion, treatment with BDP does not appear to have an adverse effect on bone mass in prepubertal children with mild moderate asthma. Longitudinal studies should be performed in order to evaluate the effect of early introduction of inhaled corticosteroids in children with mild asthma

Risposta degli eosinofili in presenza-assenza di pneumoallergeni in bambini con asma allergica

Studio su risposta degli eosinofili in presenza-assenza di pneumoallergeni in bambini con asma allergic

Correlation between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and eosinophil (E) in the sputum of asthmatic children during period of allergen exposure and avboidance

Correlation between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and eosinophil (E) in the sputum of asthmatic children during period of allergen exposure and avboidanc

The role of the bile salt surfactant sodium deoxycholate in aqueous two-phase separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes revealed by systematic parameter variations

Aqueous two-phase (ATP) extraction has been demonstrated as a fast, scalable, and effective separation technique to sort single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) according to their diameter and chiral structure. The exact mechanism behind the chirality-dependent migration of SWCNTs between the two phases is however not completely understood, and depends on many parameters (e.g., choice of surfactants and their concentration, pH, temperature, …), making it difficult to optimize the multivariable parameter space. In this work, we present a systematic study of the choice and concentration of specific surfactants on the ATP sorting, by performing a series of single-step ATP separations in which each time only one parameter is systematically varied, while monitoring the structure-specific migration of every SWCNT chirality between both phases with detailed wavelength-dependent spectroscopy. These systematic studies reveal that the diameter-dependent stacking of a discrete number of sodium deoxycholate molecules fitting around the SWCNT circumference determines the separation order in the form of a periodically modulated pattern as a function of SWCNT diameter. Addition of cosurfactants can be used to compete with the bile salt surfactant to enhance the separation yields, but does not affect the sorting order. The results are afterwards directly applied to predict the parameters required to separate specific chiral structures in just two ATP steps

Electronic structure of confined carbyne from joint wavelength-dependent resonant Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory investigations

Carbyne, i.e. an infinitely long linear carbon chain (LCC), has been at the focus of a lot of research for quite a while, yet its optical, electronic, and vibrational properties have only recently started to become accessible experimentally thanks to its synthesis inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs). While the role of the host CNT in determining the optical gap of the LCCs has been studied previously, little is known about the excited states of such ultralong LCCs. In this work, we employ the selectivity of wavelength-dependent resonant Raman spectroscopy to investigate the excited states of ultralong LCCs encapsulated inside double-walled CNTs. In addition to the optical gap, the Raman resonance profile shows three additional resonances. Corroborated with DFT calculations on LCCs with up to 100 carbon atoms, we assign these resonances to a vibronic series of a different electronic state. Indeed, the calculations predict the existence of two optically allowed electronic states separated by an energy of 0.14–0.22 eV in the limit of an infinite chain, in agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, among these two states, the one with highest energy is also characterized by the largest electron-vibration couplings, which explains the corresponding vibronic series of overtones