Capability of an optical sensor in verifying the sugarcane response to nitrogen rates

Técnicas de agricultura de precisão são alternativas para otimizar a utilização de insumos, dentre eles o nitrogênio. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a possibilidade de uso de um sensor ótico ativo comercial na cultura da cana-de-açúcar, verificando sua capacidade em identificar a resposta da cultura a diferentes doses de nitrogênio (N). Para tanto um experimento em blocos ao acaso foi instalado em área experimental de cana-de-açúcar de terceiro corte, colhida mecanicamente, com diferentes doses de N (0, 50, 100, 150 e 200 kg ha-1) e quatro repetições. Aos 30, 60 e 90 dias após o corte (DAC) realizou-se a mensuração do NDVI (índice de vegetação por diferença normalizada) a partir do sensor ótico. Não se obteve resposta do NDVI mensurado aos 30 e 60 DAC, porém aos 90 DAC se verificou que o sensor foi capaz de diferenciar as doses de N aplicadas, correlacionando-se positivamente com a produtividade final de colmos obtida. Este trabalho dá subsídios a trabalhos de mesma natureza que visem a gestão da adubação nitrogenada em cana-de-açúcar a partir de sensores óticos.Techniques of precision agriculture are alternatives to optimize the use of inputs, among them nitrogen. The present work had as its objective to verify the possibility of use of a commercial optical sensor in sugarcane, verifying its capability in identification of the crop response to different nitrogen (N) rates. An experiment was installed in randomized blocks in an experimental area with third sugarcane ratoon, harvested mechanically, with different N rates (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg ha-1) and four repetitions. At 30, 60 and 90 days after the harvest (DAH) the measuring of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) was accomplished starting from the optical sensor. No response was verified of NDVI on measurements at the 30 and 60 DAH, however at 90 DAH the sensor was capable to differentiate the doses of applied N, positively correlated with the sugarcane final production. This work gives subsidies to studies of same nature that seek the management of the nitrogen fertilization in sugarcane using optical sensor.FAPES

Apraxia and motor dysfunction in corticobasal syndrome

Background: Corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is characterized by multifaceted motor system dysfunction and cognitive disturbance; distinctive clinical features include limb apraxia and visuospatial dysfunction. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used to study motor system dysfunction in CBS, but the relationship of TMS parameters to clinical features has not been studied. The present study explored several hypotheses; firstly, that limb apraxia may be partly due to visuospatial impairment in CBS. Secondly, that motor system dysfunction can be demonstrated in CBS, using threshold-tracking TMS, and is linked to limb apraxia. Finally, that atrophy of the primary motor cortex, studied using voxel-based morphometry analysis (VBM), is associated with motor system dysfunction and limb apraxia in CBS.   Methods: Imitation of meaningful and meaningless hand gestures was graded to assess limb apraxia, while cognitive performance was assessed using the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised (ACE-R), with particular emphasis placed on the visuospatial subtask. Patients underwent TMS, to assess cortical function, and VBM.   Results: In total, 17 patients with CBS (7 male, 10 female; mean age 64.4+/2 6.6 years) were studied and compared to 17 matched control subjects. Of the CBS patients, 23.5% had a relatively inexcitable motor cortex, with evidence of cortical dysfunction in the remaining 76.5% patients. Reduced resting motor threshold, and visuospatial performance, correlated with limb apraxia. Patients with a resting motor threshold <50% performed significantly worse on the visuospatial sub-task of the ACE-R than other CBS patients. Cortical function correlated with atrophy of the primary and pre-motor cortices, and the thalamus, while apraxia correlated with atrophy of the pre-motor and parietal cortices.   Conclusions: Cortical dysfunction appears to underlie the core clinical features of CBS, and is associated with atrophy of the primary motor and pre-motor cortices, as well as the thalamus, while apraxia correlates with pre-motor and parietal atrophy

Pentoxifylline associated to hypertonic saline solution attenuates inflammatory process and apoptosis after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion in rats

PURPOSE:To evaluate intestinal inflammatory and apoptotic processes after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury, modulated by pentoxifylline and hypertonic saline.METHODS:It was allocated into four groups (n=6), 24 male Wistar rats (200 to 250g) and submitted to intestinal ischemia for 40 min and reperfusion for 80 min: IR (did not receive any treatment); HS group (Hypertonic Saline, 4ml/kg-IV); PTX group (Pentoxifylline, 30mg/kg-IV); HS+PTX group (Hypertonic Saline and Pentoxifylline). All animals were heparinized (100U/kg). At the end of reperfusion, ileal fragments were removed and stained on hematoxylin-eosin and histochemical studies for COX-2, Bcl-2 and cleaved caspase-3.RESULTS:The values of sO2 were higher on treated groups at 40 minutes of reperfusion (p=0.0081) and 80 minutes of reperfusion (p=0.0072). Serum lactate values were lower on treated groups after 40 minutes of reperfusion (p=0.0003) and 80 minutes of reperfusion (p=0.0098). Morphologic tissue injuries showed higher grades on IR group versus other groups: HS (p=0.0006), PTX (p=0.0433) and HS+PTX (p=0.0040). The histochemical study showed lesser expression of COX-2 (p=0.0015) and Bcl-2 (p=0.0012) on HS+PTX group. A lower expression of cleaved caspase-3 was demonstrated in PTX (p=0.0090; PTXvsIR).CONCLUSION:The combined use of pentoxifylline and hypertonic saline offers best results on inflammatory and apoptotic inhibitory aspects after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion.São Paulo University Medical SchoolUSP Medical SchoolFederal University of São Paulo Medical SchoolUSP School of MedicineUSP School of Medicine Department of SurgeryUSP Medical School Department of SurgeryUNIFESP, Medical SchoolSciEL

An intercomparison of remote sensing river discharge estimation algorithms from measurements of river height, width, and slope

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission planned for launch in 2020 will map river elevations and inundated area globally for rivers >100 m wide. In advance of this launch, we here evaluated the possibility of estimating discharge in ungauged rivers using synthetic, daily ‘‘remote sensing’’ measurements derived from hydraulic models corrupted with minimal observational errors. Five discharge algorithms were evaluated, as well as the median of the five, for 19 rivers spanning a range of hydraulic and geomorphic conditions. Reliance upon a priori information, and thus applicability to truly ungauged reaches, varied among algorithms: one algorithm employed only global limits on velocity and depth, while the other algorithms relied on globally available prior estimates of discharge. We found at least one algorithm able to estimate instantaneous discharge to within 35% relative root-mean-squared error (RRMSE) on 14/16 nonbraided rivers despite out-of-bank flows, multichannel planforms, and backwater effects. Moreover, we found RRMSE was often dominated by bias; the median standard deviation of relative residuals across the 16 nonbraided rivers was only 12.5%. SWOT discharge algorithm progress is therefore encouraging, yet future efforts should consider incorporating ancillary data or multialgorithm synergy to improve results

Cell entry of a host targeting protein of oomycetes requires gp96

This work is supported by the [European Community’s] Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007–2013] under grant agreement no. [238550] (L.L., J.D.-U., C.J.S., P.v.W.); BBSRC [BBE007120/1, BB/J018333/1 and BB/G012075/1] (F.T., I.d.B., C.J.S., S.W., P.v.W.); Newton Global Partnership Award [BB/N005058/1] (F.T., P.v.W.), the University of Aberdeen (A.D.T., T.R., C.J.S., P.v.W.) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [CRC1093] (P.B., T.S.). We would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for funding INA. We would like to thank Brian Haas for his bioinformatics support. We would like to acknowledge Neil Gow and Johannes van den Boom for critical reading of the manuscript. We would like to acknowledge Svetlana Rezinciuc for technical help with pH-studies.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Epidemiology and outcome of Clostridium difficile infections in patients hospitalized in Internal Medicine: findings from the nationwide FADOI-PRACTICE study.

BACKGROUND: Clostridium difficile (CD) is a leading cause of diarrhoea among hospitalized patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the rate, the optimal diagnostic work-up, and outcome of CD infections (CDI) in Internal Medicine (IM) wards in Italy. METHODS: PRACTICE is an observational prospective study, involving 40 IM Units and evaluating all consecutive patients hospitalized during a 4-month period. CDI were defined in case of diarrhoea when both enzyme immunoassay for GDH, and test for A/B toxin were positive. Patients with CDI were followed-up for recurrences for 4 weeks after the end of therapy. RESULTS: Among the 10,780 patients observed, 103 (0.96 %) showed CDI, at admission or during hospitalization. A positive history for CD, antibiotics in the previous 4 weeks, recent hospitalization, female gender and age were significantly associated with CDI (multivariable analysis). In-hospital mortality was 16.5 % in CD group vs 6.7 % in No-CD group (p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001), whereas median length of hospital stay was 16 (IQR\u2009=\u200913) vs 8 (IQR\u2009=\u20098) days (p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001) among patients with or without CDI, respectively. Rate of CD recurrences was 14.6 %. As a post-hoc evaluation, 23 out of 34 GDH+/Tox- samples were toxin positive, when analysed by molecular method (a real-time PCR assay). The overall CD incidence rate was 5.3/10,000 patient-days. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the severity of CDI in medical wards, showing high in-hospital mortality, prolonged hospitalization and frequent short-term recurrences. Further, our survey supports a 2-3 step algorithm for CD diagnosis: EIA for detecting GDH, A and B toxin, followed by a molecular method in case of toxin-negative samples

Giardia lamblia: Distribuição de Microtúbulos no citoesqueleto de trofozoítos e cistos utilizando taxóide fluorescente

G. lamblia is a protozoan parasite of the small intestine and the etiologic agent ofgiardiosis, which presents a complex cytoskeleton composed of microtubules. Inthis study, the microtubule cytoskeleton was labeled in trophozoites and cysts ofG. lamblia, using a fluorescent taxoid (FLUTAX-2), a derivative of Taxol, whichbinds to ??-tubulin dimer polymerized. In addition, the effect of metronidazole onthe cytoskeleton of the parasite was also evaluated. FLUTAX-2 was able to labelthe microtubules of trophozoites and cysts, allowing the observation of cytoskeletalstructures, such as flagella, funis, adhesive disk, and median body. Moreover,FLUTAX-2 labeled the trophozoites from several different cultivation times,revealing the 48 hours as the best incubation period. The incubation of parasites inpresence of metronidazole did not show significant alteration on the microtubulelabeling by FLUTAX-2. We have shown the FLUTAX-2 labeling in other protozoa,Trichomonas vaginalis, T. gallinae and Tritrichomonas foetus, and this is the firstreport revealing the binding profile in G. lamblia. Our results contribute to theknowledge of biological and morphological features of this intestinal pathogen. Furthermore, our data showed no modification of microtubule profile labeling inpresence of metronidazole. Finally, a new perspective for giardiosis diagnosticis suggested, since trophozoites and cysts of G. lamblia were labeled with FLUTAX-2.Giardia lamblia  é um protozoário parasito do intestino delgado, agente etiológico da giardiose, o qual apresenta um complexo citoesqueleto composto por microtúbulos. Neste estudo, a distribuição dos microtúbulos no citoesqueleto de trofozoítos e cistos de G. lamblia foi investigada por meio de um taxóide fluorescente, o FLUTAX-2 – um derivado do Taxol que se liga aos dímeros polimerizados de ??-tubulina. O efeito do metronidazol sobre o citoesqueleto do organismo também foi avaliado. FLUTAX-2 foi capaz de se ligar aos microtúbulos de trofozoítos e cistos de G. lamblia, tornando possível a visualização de estruturas do citoesqueleto do microrganismo, como flagelos, funis e disco adesivo. Além disso, FLUTAX-2 marcou os trofozoítos cultivados por diferentes períodos, revelando que o intervalo de 48 horas é o melhor tempo de cultivo. A incubação dos parasitos na presença de metronidazol não demonstrou alteração significativa na marcação microtubular por FLUTAX-2. Nosso grupo já apresentou a marcação pelo FLUTAX-2 em outros protozoários, Trichomonas vaginalis, T. gallinae e Tritrichomonas foetus, e este é o primeiro trabalho a revelar o perfil de ligação em G. lamblia. Os resultados contribuem para o conhecimento de aspectos biológicos e morfológicos do parasito e sugerem perspectivas para o diagnóstico laboratorial da giardiose

An immunohistochemically positive E-cadherin status is not always predictive for a good prognosis in human breast cancer

BACKGROUND: in primary breast cancers dichotomic classification of E-cadherin expression, according to an arbitrary cutoff, may be inadequate and lead to loss of prognostic significance or contrasting prognostic indications. We aimed to assess the prognostic value of high and low E-cadherin levels in a consecutive case series (204 cases) of unilateral node-negative non-lobular breast cancer patients with a 8-year median follow-up and that did not receive any adjuvant therapy after surgery. METHODS: expression of E-cadherin was investigated by immunohistochemistry and assessed according to conventional score (0, 1+, 2+, 3+). Multiple correspondence analysis was used to visualise associations of both categorical and continuous variables. The impact of E-cadherin expression on patients outcome was evaluated in terms of event-free survival curves by the Kaplan-Meier method and proportional hazard Cox model. RESULTS: respect to intermediate E-cadherin expression values (2+), high (3+) or low (0 to 1+) E-cadherin expression levels had a negative prognostic impact. In fact, both patients with a low-to-nil (score 0 to 1+) expression level of E-cadherin and patients with a high E-cadherin expression level (score 3+) demonstrated an increased risk of failure (respectively, hazard ratio (HR)=1.71, confidence interval (CI)=0.72-4.06 and HR=4.22, CI=1.406-12.66) and an interesting association with young age. CONCLUSIONS: the findings support the evidence that high expression values of E-cadherin are not predictive for a good prognosis and may help to explain conflicting evidence on the prognostic impact of E-cadherin in breast cancer when assessed on dichotomic basis