Of the importance of a leaf: the ethnobotany of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans

BACKGROUND: Sarma - cooked leaves rolled around a filling made from rice and/or minced meat, possibly vegetables and seasoning plants - represents one of the most widespread feasting dishes of the Middle Eastern and South-Eastern European cuisines. Although cabbage and grape vine sarma is well-known worldwide, the use of alternative plant leaves remains largely unexplored. The aim of this research was to document all of the botanical taxa whose leaves are used for preparing sarma in the folk cuisines of Turkey and the Balkans. Methods: Field studies were conducted during broader ethnobotanical surveys, as well as during ad-hoc investigations between the years 2011 and 2014 that included diverse rural communities in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Primary ethnobotanical and folkloric literatures in each country were also considered. Results: Eighty-seven botanical taxa, mainly wild, belonging to 50 genera and 27 families, were found to represent the bio-cultural heritage of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans. The greatest plant biodiversity in sarma was found in Turkey and, to less extent, in Bulgaria and Romania. The most commonly used leaves for preparing sarma were those of cabbage (both fresh and lacto-fermented), grape vine, beet, dock, sorrel, horseradish, lime tree, bean, and spinach. In a few cases, the leaves of endemic species (Centaurea haradjianii, Rumex gracilescens, and R. olympicus in Turkey) were recorded. Other uncommon sarma preparations were based on lightly toxic taxa, such as potato leaves in NE Albania, leaves of Arum, Convolvulus, and Smilax species in Turkey, of Phytolacca americana in Macedonia, and of Tussilago farfara in diverse countries. Moreover, the use of leaves of the introduced species Reynoutria japonica in Romania, Colocasia esculenta in Turkey, and Phytolacca americana in Macedonia shows the dynamic nature of folk cuisines. Conclusion: The rich ethnobotanical diversity of sarma confirms the urgent need to record folk culinary plant knowledge. The results presented here can be implemented into initiatives aimed at re-evaluating folk cuisines and niche food markets based on local neglected ingredients, and possibly also to foster trajectories of the avant-garde cuisines inspired by ethnobotanical knowledge

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Cost reduction in high power computing using a deferred repair strategy: a simulation study

Fault-tolerant systems with repair-upon-failure strategy can become expensive in terms of labour and time. Especially for homogeneous multi-server systems, if no control hierarchy exists, postponing non essential repairs can reduce these costs without affecting the availability of the whole system significantly. Of course, while postponing these repairs, it is essential to keep the whole system capable to deal with user requests. For this purpose, usually, a threshold value is defined which represents the minimum number of servers the system administrator should keep operative. Performability evaluation of such systems is very important since the systems are fault tolerant. In this paper, the simulation of large scale multi-server systems, with identical servers, serving a stream of arriving jobs is considered. The cost of running such systems with various deferred repair strategies has been calculated and compared to the cost of using a repair-upon failure strategy

Approximate solution for two stage open networks with Markov-modulated queues minimizing the state space explosion problem

Analytical solutions for two-dimensional Markov processes suffer from the state space explosion problem. Two stage tandem networks are effectively used for analytical modelling of various communication and computer systems which have tandem system behaviour. Performance evaluation of tandem systems with feedbacks can be handled with these models. However, because of the numerical difficulties caused by large state spaces, considering server failures and repairs at the second stage employing multiple servers has not been possible. The solution proposed in this paper is approximate with a high degree of accuracy. Using this approach, two stage open networks with multiple servers, break downs, and repairs at the second stage as well as feedback can be modelled as three-dimensional Markov processes and solved for performability measures. Results show that, unlike other approaches such as spectral expansion, the steady state solution is possible regardless of the number of servers employed

A tectonic escape structure: Erciyes pull-apart basin, Kayseri, central Anatolia, Turkey

A large sinistral intracontinental transcurrent structure, the Central Anatolian Fault Zone (CAFZ), is located between Erzincan in the northeast and offshore of Anamur county in the southwest of Turkey. Northeastern and southwestern segments of the fault zone are linked to each other by an intervening and approximately NS-trending transtensional structure, the Erciyes pull-apart basin (EPB). The Kizilirmak-Erkilet and Dokmetas segments of the CAFZ bend southwards at about 45 degrees -50 degrees near Kayseri and result in a releasing double bend, which has nucleated both the EPB and its main feature, the Erciyes stratovolcano complex (ESVC) since Middle Pliocene time. The EPB is a similar to 35-km-wide, 120-km-long, 1.2-km-deep, lazy S-shaped and actively-growing depression with the ESVC forming a high-standing central barrier between the northern and southern parts of the basin. Hence, the EPB appears as two separate basins, namely the 'Sultansazligi and Kayseri-Sarimsakli depressions'. However this is not correct, because development of the EPB and ESVC has been coeval with the volcanic activity producing the ESVC continuing into prehistoric times. Development of the EPB is continuing as indicated by faulted, uplifted and terraced Pleistocene-Early Holocene palaeolake beach deposits, and historical to recent earthquakes. Accumulative throws on the eastern and western margin-bounding faults of the EPB are 1225 m and 720 m respectively and show that basin development has been asymmetrical. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS

Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial

Objectives: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an analgesic current that is used in many acute and chronic painful states. The aim of this study was to investigate central pain modulation by low-frequency TENS.Methods: Twenty patients diagnosed with subacromial impingement syndrome of the shoulder were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized into 2 groups: low-frequency TENS and sham TENS. Painful stimuli were delivered during which functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed, both before and after treatment. Ten central regions of interest that were reported to have a role in pain perception were chosen and analyzed bilaterally on functional magnetic resonance images. Perceived pain intensity during painful stimuli was evaluated using visual analog scale (VAS).Results: In the low-frequency TENS group, there was a statistically significant decrease in the perceived pain intensity and pain-specific activation of the contralateral primary sensory cortex, bilateral caudal anterior cingulate cortex, and of the ipsilateral supplementary motor area. There was a statistically significant correlation between the change of VAS value and the change of activity in the contralateral thalamus, prefrontal cortex, and the ipsilateral posterior parietal cortex. In the sham TENS group, there was no significant change in VAS value and activity of regions of interest.Discussion: We suggest that a 1-session low-frequency TENS may induce analgesic effect through modulation of discriminative, affective, and motor aspects of central pain perception