Assessment of Climate Driven Changes in Flow Series of Alpine Basin: A Case Study of Danube River Basin

This study was carried out in order to analyze the climate change driven influence on mean monthly flow series of Danube River and its tributaries during the last century. The study confirms some signs of climate driven alterations in monthly river flow series along with change in flow seasonality during the last century. In spite of this, man-made interference in the basin like i.e. groundwater extraction, irrigation, river regulation, land use alteration and urbanization, has significantly changed Danube flow regime in most areas of the catchment. The analysis of Achleiten station demonstrates that average annual flow regime is a little bit increased. Major increase is observed in winter and autumn months and decrease in summer months. These seasonal alterations clearly signal a future glimpse of reduced water availability in alpine basins. This will mainly occur due to the change in the form of precipitation in winter, from snow to rain and the consequent less snow accumulation, and the early melt of snow storage, less precipitation and high evaporation rate in summer

Effects of Climate Change on Mountain Waters: A Case Study of European Alps

The Alps play a vital role in the water supply of the region through the rivers Danube, Rhine, Po and Rhone while they are crucial to the ecosystem. Over the past two centuries, we witnessed the temperature to increase by +2 degrees, which is approximately three times higher than the global average. Under this study, the Alps are analyzed using regional climatic models for possible projections in order to understand the climatic changes impact on the water cycle, particularly on runoff. The scenario is based on assumptions of future greenhouse gases emissions. The regional model results show the consistent warming trend in the last 30-year span: temperature in winter may increase by 3 to 4.5°C and summers by 4 to 5.5°C. The precipitation regime may also be altered: increasing about 10-50% in winter and decreasing about 30-60% in summer. The changes in the amount of precipitation are not uninformed. Differences are observed particularly between the North West and South East part of the Alps. Due to the projected changes in alpine rainfall and temperature patterns, the seasonality of alpine flow regime will also be altered: massive rise will occur in winter and a significant reduction in summer. The typical low flow period during winter will also be shifted to late summer and autumn

Attenuation of RNA polymerase II pausing mitigates BRCA1-associated R-loop accumulation and tumorigenesis.

Most BRCA1-associated breast tumours are basal-like yet originate from luminal progenitors. BRCA1 is best known for its functions in double-strand break repair and resolution of DNA replication stress. However, it is unclear whether loss of these ubiquitously important functions fully explains the cell lineage-specific tumorigenesis. In vitro studies implicate BRCA1 in elimination of R-loops, DNA-RNA hybrid structures involved in transcription and genetic instability. Here we show that R-loops accumulate preferentially in breast luminal epithelial cells, not in basal epithelial or stromal cells, of BRCA1 mutation carriers. Furthermore, R-loops are enriched at the 5' end of those genes with promoter-proximal RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pausing. Genetic ablation of Cobra1, which encodes a Pol II-pausing and BRCA1-binding protein, ameliorates R-loop accumulation and reduces tumorigenesis in Brca1-knockout mouse mammary epithelium. Our studies show that Pol II pausing is an important contributor to BRCA1-associated R-loop accumulation and breast cancer development

Performance Analysis of Water Filtration Units for Reduction of pH, Turbidity, Solids and Electricity Conductivity

The main objective of this study was to analyze the performance of different filtration units that reduce turbidity, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS) and electrical conductivity (EC) of canal water. For that, three different types of filtration units, namely, slow sand, rapid sand and dual media were fabricated. Typical parameters of canal and filtered water, like pH, turbidity, TDS and EC were examined, and then the filtered water quality was compared with World Health Organizations (WHO) standards. Maximum pH reduction was noted with dual media and less by the rapid system, while more turbidity was reduced with the slow sand and less with the dual media filtration system. In contrary to the pH and turbidity results, increment in both TDS and EC values were noted in filtered samples compared to that of raw water samples due to the transfer of dissolved minerals present in the sand into the filtered water during the contact period with media in the bed. However, all examined parameters of filtered water were within WHO standards

Switching the stereochemical outcome of 6-endo-trig cyclizations; Synthesis of 2,6-Cis-6-substituted 4-oxopipecolic acids

A base-mediated 6-endo-trig cyclization of readily accessible enone-derived α-amino acids has been developed for the direct synthesis of novel 2,6-cis-6- substituted-4-oxo-L-pipecolic acids. A range of aliphatic and aryl side chains were tolerated by this mild procedure to give the target compounds in good overall yields. Molecular modeling of the 6-endo-trig cyclization allowed some insight as to how these compounds were formed, with the enolate intermediate generated via an equilibrium process, followed by irreversible tautomerization/neutralization providing the driving force for product formation. Stereoselective reduction and deprotection of the resulting 2,6-cis-6-substituted 4-oxo-L-pipecolic acids to the corresponding 4-hydroxy-L-pipecolic acids was also performed

Adjacent thoracic lymph node metastases originating from two separate primary cancers: case report

Reported is an unusual case of adjacent thoracic lymph nodes demonstrating metastases from two different primary malignancies. A 51 year-old woman with a previous history of bilateral breast cancer underwent a radical gastro-oesophagectomy for adenocarcinoma of the lower third of the oesophagus. The resection specimen demonstrated breast and oesophageal metastases in adjacent thoracic lymph nodes. Mechanisms for this phenomenon, including the known local immune suppression on lymphoid cells by oesophageal carcinoma cells, are discussed

Normative equations for central augmentation index:Assessment of inter-population applicability and how it could be improved

Common reference values of arterial stiffness indices could be effective screening tool in detecting vascular phenotypes at risk. However, populations of the same ethnicity may differ in vascular phenotype due to different environmental pressure. We examined applicability of normative equations for central augmentation index (cAIx) derived from Danish population with low cardiovascular risk on the corresponding Croatian population from the Mediterranean area. Disagreement between measured and predicted cAIx was assessed by Bland-Altman analysis. Both, cAIx-age distribution and normative equation fitted on Croatian data were highly comparable to Danish low-risk sample. Contrarily, Bland-Altman analysis of cAIx disagreement revealed a curvilinear deviation from the line of full agreement indicating that the equations were not equally applicable across age ranges. Stratification of individual data into age decades eliminated curvilinearity in all but the 30–39 (men) and 40–49 (women) decades. In other decades, linear disagreement independent of age persisted indicating that cAIx determinants other than age were not envisaged/compensated for by proposed equations. Therefore, established normative equations are equally applicable to both Nordic and Mediterranean populations but are of limited use. If designed for narrower age ranges, the equations’ sensitivity in detecting vascular phenotypes at risk and applicability to different populations could be improved

Use of Rice SSR Markers as RAPD Markers for Genetic Diversity Analysis in Zingiberaceae

Species of Zingiberaceae display a diversity in habitat, ethnobotanical use and morphology. However, little is known about the genetic relationships among taxa and genetic diversity, primarily due to the lack of suitable molecular markers. We tested the cross-amplification potential of microsatellite markers among taxa to identify a larger number of genetic markers. To assess the applicability of rice microsatellite markers to the Zingiberaceae, we tested 12 microsatellite markers for 14 genotypes from three genera of this family: Zingiber, Alpinia and Curcuma. The origin of the genotypes was diverse, covering eight Asian countries. Four microsatellite primer sets failed to amplify fragments in all genotypes studied, whereas the other primer sets amplified all the genotypes. Among the 141 bands, that could be scored, 140 (99.5%) were polymorphic. On the average, each microsatellite primer set amplified 17.6 DNA fragments. In general, amplified fragments were larger than the original rice fragments including the microsatellite region, although in some cases, the amplified bands were similar in size. Though sequence analysis of these bands confirmed the absence of target repeat motif, amplification of a large number of polymorphic bands provided the basis to perform an analysis of genetic diversity. Primers could generate enough polymorphism for possible use in diversity studies, based on provisional multivariate analyses such as cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). The whole set of genotypes based on molecular data was classified into four clusters after cluster analysis. Genotypes from the Curcuma and Alpinia genera were grouped into clusters I and II, respectively. Clusters III and IV comprised genotypes from the genus Zingiber. PCA led to a similar classification. The high polymorphism documented in the present study indicated that the rice microsatellite primers were useful for genetic diversity studies among genera in the family Zingiberaceae

Non-invasive measurements of atherosclerosis in adult cystinosis patients

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: Cystinosis is characterized by intralysosomal cystine accumulation, causing end stage renal disease around 10 years of age if not treated with cysteamine. Cystine accumulation in blood vessels might increase atheroma formation or arterial stiffness and therefore increase the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to investigate the risk for CVD by non-invasive measures of atherosclerosis (NIMA) and to evaluate the effect of cysteamine treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirteen Dutch adult cystinosis patients were included. White blood cell (WBC) cystine levels, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and concommitant medications were obtained from medical records. NIMA included carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT, n = 13), pulse wave velocity (PWV, n = 8) and pulse wave analysis (PWA, n = 6). Results : GFR ranged between 4-95 mL/min/1.73 m(2). All but one patient were treated with cysteamine, mean WBC cystine values ranged between 0.34-1.64 nmol cystine/mg protein, 8 patients had mean WBC cystine levels <1 nmol cystine/mg protein. When compared to healthy subjects, cIMT and PWV levels were above normal values in 1 patient for each measure. PWA measurements showed high augmentation index in three patients who did not receive lipid-lowering medication. When corrected for renal function, cIMT and PWV levels were within the normal range. CONCLUSION: Young adult cystinosis patients treated with cysteamine have no additional risk for CVD when compared to patients with chronic kidney disease of other causes