Sudomotor and cardiovascular dysfunction in patients with early untreated Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: According to Braak staging of Parkinson's disease (PD), detection of autonomic dysfunction would help with early diagnosis of PD. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the autonomic nervous system is involved in the early stage of PD, we evaluated cardiovascular and sudomotor function in early untreated PD patients. METHODS: Orthostatic blood pressure regulation, heart rate variability, skin vasomotor function, and palmar sympathetic sweat responses were examined in 50 early untreated PD patients and 20 healthy control subjects. RESULTS: The mean decrease in systolic blood pressure during head-up tilt in PD patients was mildly but significantly larger than in controls (p = 0.0001). There were no differences between the 2 groups in heart rate variability, with analysis of low frequency (LF; mediated by baroreflex feedback), and high frequency (HF; mainly reflecting parasympathetic vagal) modulation. However, LF/HF, an index of sympatho-parasympathetic balance, was lower in the PD group than in controls (p = 0.02). Amplitudes of palmar sweat responses to deep inspiration (p = 0.004), mental arithmetic (p = 0.01), and exercise (p = 0.01) in PD patients were lower than in controls, with negative correlations with motor severity. Amplitudes of palmar skin vasomotor reflexes in PD patients did not differ from controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates impairment of sympathetic cardiovascular and sudomotor function with orthostatic dysregulation of blood pressure control, reduced LF/HF and reduction in palm sweat responses even in early untreated PD patients

Estimation of the surface coseismic deformation zone width along active faults based on global data

Η εκδήλωση επιφανειακών διαρρήξεων και μετατοπίσεων κατά μήκος των ρηγμάτων, κατά τη διάρκεια ισχυρού σεισμού, έχει σαν αποτέλεσμα την ενίσχυση των καταστροφών λόγω επιβάρυνσης που προκαλούν επιπλέον των σεισμικών δονήσεων και οι εδαφικές παραμορφώσεις. Το μέγεθος των σεισμικών μετατοπίσεων μπορεί να εκτιμηθεί με βάση υπάρχουσες εμπειρικές σχέσεις που συνδέουν το μέγεθος του σεισμού με το μήκος του ρήγματος και την σεισμική μετατόπιση. Ένα θέμα μεγάλου ενδιαφέροντος για την αντισεισμική προστασία και τον αστικό σχεδιασμό, αφορά το πλάτος της ζώνης μέσα στο οποίο θα εκδηλωθούν οι επιφανειακές διαρρήξεις κατά μήκος του ρήγματος που ανέδρασε. Στον Ελληνικό Αντισεισμικό Κανονισμό αναφέρεται η απαγόρευση δόμησης πάνω σε ενεργά ρήγματα, χωρίς όμως να καθορίζεται το πλάτος της ζώνης απαγόρευσης. Σε κανονισμούς άλλων χωρών διευκρινίζεται ότι αυτό, σε περίπτωση απλών κατασκευών θα είναι 25m εκατέρωθεν του ενεργού ρήγματος. Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι να διερευνήσει την επίδραση του μήκους και του είδους ενός ρήγματος στο πλάτος της ζώνης μέσα στο οποίο εκδηλώνονται οι εδαφικές σεισμικές διαρρήξεις. Για την εκτίμηση του μελετήθηκαν ορισμένοι μεγάλοι σεισμοί σε διάφορες χώρες της γης, με βάση τους οποίους εξάγονται τα πρώτα συμπεράσματα. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αποτελεί μια αρχική προσπάθεια καταγραφής και συστηματικοποίησης τέτοιου είδους πληροφοριών στην Ελλάδα, και θεωρούμε ότι θα πρέπει να επεκταθεί με την συστηματική καταγραφή όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερων σεισμών για τους οποίους υπάρχουν διαθέσιμα τα κατάλληλα στοιχεία αξιολόγησης. Στο πλαίσιο της διπλωματικής εργασίας έγινε συλλογή, επεξεργασία και αξιολόγηση των πληροφοριών που αφορούσαν την εκδήλωση επιφανειακών διαρρήξεων, τεκτονικής προέλευσης, κατά τη διάρκεια ισχυρών σεισμών. Σημειώνεται ότι επειδή λεπτομερή δεδομένα μεγεθών στο θέμα αυτό είναι περιορισμένα, ελήφθησαν υπόψη και χάρτες, σχέδια ή φωτογραφίες υπαίθρου για την αξιολόγηση του πλάτους της ζώνης συνσεισμικής παραμόρφωσης.The occurrence of surface rupturing and displacement along the faults, during strong earthquakes, result on the elevated destruction due to additional ground deformation. The magnitude of the coseismic displacement can be estimated on the basis of existed empirical relationships between the earthquake magnitude, the length of the fault and the seismic displacement. An interest topic for the antiseismic protection and urban design is the estimation of the width of the surface coseismic deformation zone along an active fault. According to the Greek Antiseismic Code, construction on the active faults is prohibited, although the width of the zone is not considered. In seismic regulations of other countries, this zone has a width of 25m in each side of the concerned active fault. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the influence of the fault type and length on the width of the zone, inside of which the seismic surface ruptures are formed. For this estimation, a number of strong earthquakes in global scale were studied and the preliminary results were provided. This work is a first attempt, in Greece, to record and evaluate such a kind of information, considering that a systematic research must be conrinued in this domain This work was based on the collection, processing and evaluation of the information concerning the surface rupruring, of tectonic origin, during strong earthquakes. It is noticed that due to the limited detailed data, relevant maps, designs and field photographs were taken in consideration, for the estimation of the deformation zone width.Χρήστος Α. ΠαπαγεωργίουΓιασουμής Α. Μιχαή

Selection for root morphological traits improves the growth of grafted bell pepper

Plant breeding programs seldom explicitly consider root traits in selecting high-performance lines. With increased emphasis on resource use efficiency in horticulture, there is a need to identify root traits that are linked to nutrient capture. Grafting could provide a basis for identifying beneficial root traits to be included in breeding programs. Research was conducted to investigate the relationship between root traits and biomass of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) using a standard commercial cultivar ('Warlock') as a scion over 11 rootstocks of wild pepper (Capsicum chinense), while self-grafted 'Warlock' was used as a control. After 5 weeks of growth in rhizoboxes, the plants were harvested to determine the biomass and root traits (total length, surface area, volume and average diameter). Effect of rootstocks resulted in above-ground biomass differences of -12 to +65% relative to the control, indicating that some rootstocks of the wild accessions were able to exploit more soil resources for a greater above-ground growth. Analysis of root images indicated that eight accessions produced significantly larger root surface area and volume, with a larger biomass allocation to shoots compared with the control. Shoot biomass was significantly correlated with root length (r2=0.484), root surface area (r2=0.424) and root volume (r2=0.355). These correlations showed that some rootstocks are capable of producing larger above-ground biomass with a relatively smaller photosynthate investment in root growth. These results indicate that the selection of wild accessions as rootstock has the potential to improve the root system of bell pepper for a greater above-ground biomass

Interconversion of aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxicol by several fungi.

Four fungal strains, namely, Aspergillus niger, Eurotium herbariorum, a Rhizopus sp., and non-aflatoxin (AF)-producing Aspergillus flavus, which could convert AF-B1 to aflatoxicol (AFL), could also reconvert AFL to AF-B1. The interconversion of AF-B1 to AFL and of AFL to AF-B1 was ascertained to occur during proliferation of the fungi. These reactions were distinctly observed in cell-free systems obtained from disrupted mycelia of A. flavus and the Rhizopus sp., but they were not observed in culture filtrates from intact (nondisrupted) mycelia of the same strains. The interconversion activities of AF-B1 and AFL were not observed when the cell-free systems were preheated at 100 degrees C. These findings strongly suggest that the interconversion of AF-B1 and AFL is mediated by intracellular enzymes of A. flavus and the Rhizopus sp. In addition, the isomerization of AFL-A to AFL-B observed in culture medium was also found to occur by the lowering of the culture pH