Influence of different cytokinins used in in vitro culture on the stoma morphology of pistachio (Pistacia vera L. cv. Siirt)

Three different cytokinins (BA, kinetin and TDZ at 1 mg/l) were tested in order to study their effects on pistachio stoma morphology. Additional BA concentrations of 0.25, 0.625 and 2 mg/l were also tested.The stoma morphology of pistachio leaves in vitro was affected by cytokinins. Stomas obtained from 1 mg/l BA medium were similar to those developed in vivo. TDZ, kinetin and other BA concentrations resulted in abnormal stoma development

Effect of plant growth regulators on in vitro shoot multiplication of Amygdalus communis L. cv. Yaltsinki

An efficient protocol was established for in vitro shoot multiplication from apical shoot tips derived from mature trees of almond (Amygdalus communis L.) cultivars, Yaltsinki. Explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (1962) (MS) medium containing various concentrations of 6-benzyladenin (BA) and kinetin (kin) for shoot multiplication. Shoot multiplication was best achieved from explant on MS medium containing 30 gl-1 sucrose, 7 gl-1 agar and 1.0 mgl-1 BA. This amount of BA (1.0 mgl-1) gave the best multiple shoot formation response with an average of 16.10 shoots per explant. In addition, shoots were cultured on the media containing 1.0 mgl-1 BA and kin combined with three different auxins (0.25 and 0.5 mgl-1 of IAA, IBA and NAA) separately. It was noted that 1.0 mgl-1 BA and kin combinated with NAA had inhibitory effect on new shoot formation and no shoot formation was induced. However, explants cultivated on medium containing 1.0 mgl-1 BA and 0.5 mgl-1 IAA resulted in 11.25 shoots per explant. The effect of four different sucrose concentrations (20, 30, 40, 50 gl-1) on the multiplication of shoots was also investigated. The best shoot multiplication was obtained in MS media containing 30 gl-1 sucrose with an average of 15.40 shoots per explant

IHE cross-enterprise document sharing for imaging: interoperability testing software

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the deployments of Electronic Health Records (EHR), interoperability testing in healthcare is becoming crucial. EHR enables access to prior diagnostic information in order to assist in health decisions. It is a virtual system that results from the cooperation of several heterogeneous distributed systems. Interoperability between peers is therefore essential. Achieving interoperability requires various types of testing. Implementations need to be tested using software that simulates communication partners, and that provides test data and test plans.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper we describe a software that is used to test systems that are involved in sharing medical images within the EHR. Our software is used as part of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) testing process to test the Cross Enterprise Document Sharing for imaging (XDS-I) integration profile. We describe its architecture and functionalities; we also expose the challenges encountered and discuss the elected design solutions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>EHR is being deployed in several countries. The EHR infrastructure will be continuously evolving to embrace advances in the information technology domain. Our software is built on a web framework to allow for an easy evolution with web technology. The testing software is publicly available; it can be used by system implementers to test their implementations. It can also be used by site integrators to verify and test the interoperability of systems, or by developers to understand specifications ambiguities, or to resolve implementations difficulties.</p

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the duodenum together with multiple intra-abdominal thromboses and hepatitis C virus infection: a case report

Mucosa associated lymphoid tissue MALT lymphoma is a low grade malignancy that arises most commonly from the gastric mucosa. Small intestinal involvement is very rare. The causative relationship between Helicobacter pylori and the gastric MALT lymphoma is a well known issue, but recently there are several data suggesting the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the pathogenesis of lymphoma including MALT lymphoma. Herein we present a rare case of duodenal MALT lymphoma with multiple intra-abdominal thromboses together with HCV infection that was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction detecting HCV-RNA within the peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Architecture of a consent management suite and integration into IHE-based regional health information networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The University Hospital Heidelberg is implementing a Regional Health Information Network (RHIN) in the Rhine-Neckar-Region in order to establish a shared-care environment, which is based on established Health IT standards and in particular Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). Similar to all other Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) approaches the chosen Personal Electronic Health Record (PEHR) architecture relies on the patient's consent in order to share documents and medical data with other care delivery organizations, with the additional requirement that the German legislation explicitly demands a patients' opt-in and does not allow opt-out solutions. This creates two issues: firstly the current IHE consent profile does not address this approach properly and secondly none of the employed intra- and inter-institutional information systems, like almost all systems on the market, offers consent management solutions at all. Hence, the objective of our work is to develop and introduce an extensible architecture for creating, managing and querying patient consents in an IHE-based environment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on the features offered by the IHE profile Basic Patient Privacy Consent (BPPC) and literature, the functionalities and components to meet the requirements of a centralized opt-in consent management solution compliant with German legislation have been analyzed. Two services have been developed and integrated into the Heidelberg PEHR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The standard-based Consent Management Suite consists of two services. The Consent Management Service is able to receive and store consent documents. It can receive queries concerning a dedicated patient consent, process it and return an answer. It represents a centralized policy enforcement point. The Consent Creator Service allows patients to create their consents electronically. Interfaces to a Master Patient Index (MPI) and a provider index allow to dynamically generate XACML-based policies which are stored in a CDA document to be transferred to the first service. Three workflows have to be considered to integrate the suite into the PEHR: recording the consent, publishing documents and viewing documents.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our approach solves the consent issue when using IHE profiles for regional health information networks. It is highly interoperable due to the use of international standards and can hence be used in any other region to leverage consent issues and substantially promote the use of IHE for regional health information networks in general.</p

Best practices in the use of learning outcomes in chemistry education

Learning outcomes driven chemistry education is increasingly practiced, providing new opportunities for international comparisons. The interest in intended learning outcomes and constructive alignment has grown in many parts of the world due to both research in higher education (Biggs & Tang, 2011) and political decisions (e. g. the Bologna process in Europe). We will describe our steps towards a method for benchmarking (i.e. learning by sharing and comparing best practice) these outcomes, to enhance learner-centered chemistry education both in the developed and developing world. The project builds on and extends task group members’ experiences from national and international projects and draws on the international framework and multicultural competence of IUPAC’s Committee on Chemistry Education. Guiding chemistry education for the future requires the exchange of perspectives on core knowledge, skills and competencies. This project evaluates how learning outcomes for courses and modules are linked to each other and to learning outcomes for educational programs and how the expected learning outcomes can be aligned with learning activities and assessment. The comparison informs guidelines for self-evaluation, which focus on local learning outcomes for chemistry education including courses/modules, compared with national and/or international descriptors and with attention to alignment with learning activities and assessment. A full electronic report and manual for the benchmarking procedure will be produced at the conclusion of the project, including a collection of examples of good/best practice for dissemination. REFERENCES Biggs, J. B. & Tang, C. S. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does. Buckingham: Open University Press/Mc Graw-Hill Education

Detection of relative dimer and rotamer concentrations of diacetamide in different solvents by FT-IR spectroscopy and DFT calculations

The relative rotamer, dimer and tautomer concentrations of diacetamide have been studied by means of infrared spectroscopy, with the recorded spectra being analyzed employing results from density functional theory calculations. It is observed that the cis-trans monomeric form of diacetamide (1) is found to be the most stable isomer in all studied solvents, with trans-trans diacetamide (2) being found to be 20% of total diacetamide in methanol. While the dimer form of diacetamide (3) is present only in carbon-tetrachloride (about 34% of the total), its tautomeric forms (4, 5) are not favorable in any of the studied solvents. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Short-course use of recombinant factor VIIa in a haemophilia patient with inhibitor undergoing cataract surgeries

A 36 year-old patient with severe haemophilia A and high-titre inhibitor underwent cataract surgery under topical anaesthesia. Recombinant factor VIIa was used only three times, once before and twice following surgery. Tranexamic acid was given concomitantly. One month after the first successful procedure on the right eye, a second operation was performed on the left eye in the same manner. Both procedures were uneventful. Neither bleeding complications nor any other side effects occurred

In vitro micropropagation of almond (Amygdalus communis L. cv. Nonpareil)

An efficient in vitro propagation method was developed for almond (Amygdalus communis L. cv. Nonpareil). The effect of BA and kinetin (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 mgl-1) on the culture initiation of zygoticembryos isolated from mature seeds was investigated. A Murashige and Skoog (1962) (MS) medium containing 30 gl-1 sucrose, 0.5 and 1.0 mgl-1 N6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and 7 gl-1 agar resulted in amultiple shoot initiation at the rate of 11.0 ± 1.32 and 14.7 ± 2.12 shoot per explant, respectively, in 28 days of culture. The effects of a low concentration of BA (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mgl-1) and differentcombinations of auxin + cytokinin were investigated for shoot proliferation. The best results for new shoot production were obtained from a MS culture medium which was supplemented with 1.0 mgl-1 BA.The rooting was achieved in a ½ MS medium supplemented with 8.0 mgl-1 indole acetic acid (IAA). The in vitro raised plants were acclimatized in a growth room and successfully transplanted to the field.This method here in described will be useful for the rapid multiplication of almond (A. communis L. cv. Nonpareil) in commercial exploitation

An expandable approach for design and personalization of digital, just-in-time adaptive interventions

Objective: We aim to deliver a framework with 2 main objectives: 1) facilitating the design of theory-driven, adaptive, digital interventions addressing chronic illnesses or health problems and 2) producing personalized intervention delivery strategies to support self-management by optimizing various intervention components tailored to people's individual needs, momentary contexts, and psychosocial variables.Materials and Methods: We propose a template-based digital intervention design mechanism enabling the configuration of evidence-based, just-in-time, adaptive intervention components. The design mechanism incorporates a rule definition language enabling experts to specify triggering conditions for interventions based on momentary and historical contextual/personal data. The framework continuously monitors and processes personal data space and evaluates intervention-triggering conditions. We benefit from reinforcement learning methods to develop personalized intervention delivery strategies with respect to timing, frequency, and type (content) of interventions. To validate the personalization algorithm, we lay out a simulation testbed with 2 personas, differing in their various simulated real-life conditions.Results: We evaluate the design mechanism by presenting example intervention definitions based on behavior change taxonomies and clinical guidelines. Furthermore, we provide intervention definitions for a real-world care program targeting diabetes patients. Finally, we validate the personalized delivery mechanism through a set of hypotheses, asserting certain ways of adaptation in the delivery strategy, according to the differences in simulation related to personal preferences, traits, and lifestyle patterns.Conclusion: While the design mechanism is sufficiently expandable to meet the theoretical and clinical intervention design requirements, the personalization algorithm is capable of adapting intervention delivery strategies for simulated real-life conditions.Diabetes mellitus: pathophysiological changes and therap