Halotolerant Ability and α-Amylase Activity of Some Saltwater Fungal Isolates

Four halotolerant fungal isolates originating from the saltwater Lake Urmia in Iran were selected during a screening program for salt resistance and α-amylase activity. The isolates were identified based on sequencing the ITS region and a part of the β-tubulin gene, as Penicillium chrysogenum (isolate U1; CBS 132820), Fusarium incarnatum (isolate U2; CBS 132821), and Penicillium polonicum (isolate U3; CBS 132822, and isolate U4; CBS 132823). The growth of these isolates was determined by measuring the colony diameter and mycelia dry weight in Sabouraud dextrose agar and yeast nitrogen base medium supplemented with NaCl, KCl, and LiCl. Isolate U4 showed a growth up in 15% NaCl and U1 was the only isolate that could grow in 20% KCl. None of the strains grew in a media containing LiCl. The salt supplemented medium did not increase the size of colony diameter in all isolates (p > 0.05). The ability of the selected isolates for amylase production was quantitatively tested and showed that P. polonicum isolate U4 was the most potent producer of amylase with a yield of 260.9 U/L after 60 h, whereas P. polonicum isolate U3 was the lowest one with a production level of 97.9 U/L after 48 h. P. polonicum isolate U4 could be a suitable candidate for production of amylase on an industrial scale after optimization. © 2013 by School of Pharmacy

Evaluating novice and experienced EFL teachers' perceived TPACK for their professional development

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is a framework which provides a number of opportunities for conducting research in teacher edu- cation, teacher professional development, and teacher’s use of technology. By applying TPACK framework, this mixed methods study aimed to examine novice and experienced EFL teachers’ differences in their perceived TPACK and its influences on their professional development. To this end, for the quantitative phase, a sample of 427 EFL teachers, both male and female with different teaching experiences were selected from various English language institutes in Tehran. In the qualitative phase, 16 EFL teachers were selected for a structured interview. The quantitative results indicated that experienced teachers were of significantly higher scores in terms of pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge subscales. In contrast, novice teachers were of significantly higher scores considering their technological knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedago- gical knowledge, and TPACK. The qualitative results demonstrated that novice and experienced EFL teachers favored different professional development programs tailored to their needs. Likewise, they claimed that they could bridge the gap in their knowledge through collaboration in professional development courses

MiR-361-5p as a promising qRT-PCR internal control for tumor and normal breast tissues

Background: One of the most widely used evaluation methods in miRNA experiments is qRT-PCR. However, selecting suitable internal controls (IC) is crucial for qRT-PCR experiments. Currently, there is no consensus on the ICs for miRNA qRT-PCR experiments in breast cancer. To this end, we tried to identify the most stable (the least expression alteration) and promising miRNAs in normal and tumor breast tissues by employing TCGA miRNA-Seq data and then experimentally validated them on fresh clinical samples. Methods: A multi-component scoring system was used which takes into account multiple expression stability criteria as well as correlation with clinical characteristics. Furthermore, we extended the scoring system for more than two biological sub-groups. TCGA BRCA samples were analyzed based on two grouping criteria: Tumor & Normal samples and Tumor subtypes. The top 10 most stable miRNAs were further investigated by differential expression and survival analysis. Then, we examined the expression level of the top scored miRNA (hsa-miR- 361-5p) along with two commonly used ICs hsa-miR-16-5p and U48 on 34 pairs of Primary breast tumor and their adjacent normal tissues using qRT-PCR. Results: According to our multi-component scoring system, hsa-miR-361-5p had the highest stability score in both grouping criteria and hsa-miR-16-5p showed significantly lower scores. Based on our qRT-PCR assay, while U48 was the most abundant IC, hsa-miR-361-5p had lower standard deviation and also was the only IC capable of detecting a significant up-regulation of hsa-miR-21-5p in breast tumor tissue. Conclusions: miRNA-Seq data is a great source to discover stable ICs. Our results demonstrated that hsa-miR-361-5p is a highly stable miRNA in tumor and non-tumor breast tissue and we. recommend it as a suitable reference gene for miRNA expression studies in breast cancer. Additionally, although hsa-miR-16-5p is a commonly used IC, it's not a suitable one for breast cancer studies. Copyright © 2021 Ghanbari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Prognostic factors of recurrence (Early and late) and death in breast cancer patients in Iranian women

Background: Breast cancer treatment success depends upon prolonging survival with effective treatment, and constant monitoring of recurrence. Survival rate can well be improved by better understanding of prognostic factors, preventive measures, and effective treatments together with follow-up and post-treatment care. Objectives: This study is aimed to know prognostic factors effective in recurrence and death in Iranian breast cancer patients. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted by reviewing data acquired from 1604 female breast cancer patients who were admitted to Cancer Research Center at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences between October, 1982 and March, 2014. During the follow-up, after diagnosis, 313 patients experienced recurrence then were classified into two groups: early recurrence, less than 1 year and late recurrence after 5 years. We analyzed prognostic factors of recurrence in each groups and evaluated effective factors of death in this patients. Results: Median age of patients at diagnosis was 50 years. Median follow up time was 4.33 years (range: 0.005-24.9 years). Of these patients, 210 (67.09 ) and 76 (24.28), developed distant and loco -regional recurrence. Among 313 patients, 62 (21/60) and 69 (24/04) had early and late recurrence. In the univariate analysis, tumor grade, stage of disease, ER and PR status, axillary lymph node involvement and lymph vascular invasion were the prognostic factors affecting recurrence in patients, but in the multivariate analysis, ER/PR statuswasthemostimportant independent prognostic factor affecting the early recurrenceandstage of disease were prognostic factors in late recurrence. In all of the recurrent patients, 56.86 (178 individuals) survived and 43.13 (135 individuals) died at the end of follow-up period. The most important factors of death were histologic grade, disease free survival time, site of recurrence and age of disease. Conclusions: Biologic marker, estrogen and progesterone receptors status, had most influence in early recurrence, unlike late recurrence, stage of disease had a more important role. However, lymph vascular invasion has been an effective factor either in early or late recurrence. As a result of studying effective factors in death of these patients, recurrence site, DFS, pathologic grade and patients� age at the time of recurrence came to be effective. Knowing more about affecting factors on recurrence and the death of patients with recurrence, one can try to enhance survival and quality of life in patients by adopting more effective treatments. © 2016, Iranian Journal of Cancer Prevention

Traumatic Pulmonary Pneumatoceles (Pseudocyst)

Introduction: Traumatic pulmonary parenchymal cavitary lesions (TPPCs) are pulmonary pseudocysts raiding secondary to lung contusion. Method: To provide an overview of the etiology, presentation, diagnosis and treatment of TPPCs, and to discuss this in the context of a cohort of 12 retrospectively reviewed patients with TPPCs presenting to Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, from January 2014 to December 2016. Between January 2014 and December 2016, a total of twelve trauma patients presented to Sahlgrenska University Hospital with TPPC following blunt trauma. Results: TPPCs are of limited clinical consequence. Inexperienced clinicians may treat these inappropriately. A Computed Tomography (CT) scan is the investigation of choice. Treatment is symptomatic. Intervention is indicated only in case of complications

Expression and function of c1orf132 long-noncoding rna in breast cancer cell lines and tissues

miR-29b2 and miR-29c play a suppressive role in breast cancer progression. C1orf132 (also named MIR29B2CHG) is the host gene for generating both microRNAs. However, the region also expresses longer transcripts with unknown functions. We employed bioinformatics and experimental approaches to decipher C1orf132 expression and function in breast cancer tissues. We also used the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to excise a predicted C1orf132 distal promoter and followed the behavior of the edited cells by real-time PCR, flow cytometry, migration assay, and RNA-seq techniques. We observed that C1orf132 long transcript is significantly downregulated in triple-negative breast cancer. We also identified a promoter for the longer transcripts of C1orf132 whose functionality was demonstrated by transfecting MCF7 cells with a C1orf132 promoter-GFP construct. Knocking-out the promoter by means of CRISPR/Cas9 revealed no alterations in the expression of the neighboring genes CD46 and CD34, while the expression of miR-29c was reduced by half. Furthermore, the promoter knockout elevated the migration ability of the edited cells. RNA sequencing revealed many up-and downregulated genes involved in various cellular pathways, including epithelial to mesenchymal transition and mammary gland development pathways. Altogether, we are reporting here the existence of an additional/distal promoter with an enhancer effect on miR-29 generation and an inhibitory effect on cell migration. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

BVVL/ FL: features caused by SLC52A3 mutations; WDFY4 and TNFSF13B may be novel causative genes

Brown-Vialetto-Van Laere (BVVL) and Fazio-Londe are disorders with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-like features, usually with recessive inheritance. We aimed to identify causative mutations in 10 probands. Neurological examinations, genetic analysis, audiometry, magnetic resonance imaging, biochemical and immunological testings, and/or muscle histopathology were performed. Mutations in known causative gene SLC52A3 were found in 7 probands. More importantly, only 1 mutated allele was observed in several patients, and variable expressivity and incomplete penetrance were clearly noted. Environmental insults may contribute to variable presentations. Putative causative mutations in other genes were identified in 3 probands. Two of the genes, WDFY4 and TNFSF13B, have immune-related functions. Inflammatory responses were implicated in the patient with the WDFY4 mutation. Malfunction of the immune system and mitochondrial anomalies were shown in the patient with the TNFSF13B mutation. Prevalence of heterozygous SLC52A3 BVVL causative mutations and notable variability in expressivity of homozygous and heterozygous genotypes are being reported for the first time. Identification of WDFY4 and TNFSF13B as candidate causative genes supports conjectures on involvement of the immune system in BVVL and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Titin mutations in iPS cells define sarcomere insufficiency as a cause of dilated cardiomyopathy

Human mutations that truncate the massive sarcomere protein titin [TTN-truncating variants (TTNtvs)] are the most common genetic cause for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a major cause of heart failure and premature death. Here we show that cardiac microtissues engineered from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are a powerful system for evaluating the pathogenicity of titin gene variants. We found that certain missense mutations, like TTNtvs, diminish contractile performance and are pathogenic. By combining functional analyses with RNA sequencing, we explain why truncations in the A-band domain of TTN cause DCM, whereas truncations in the I band are better tolerated. Finally, we demonstrate that mutant titin protein in iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes results in sarcomere insufficiency, impaired responses to mechanical and {beta}-adrenergic stress, and attenuated growth factor and cell signaling activation. Our findings indicate that titin mutations cause DCM by disrupting critical linkages between sarcomerogenesis and adaptive remodeling

The iron law of democratic socialism: British and Austrian influences on the young Karl Polanyi

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.A central thesis of Karl Polanyi's The great transformation concerns the tensions between capitalism and democracy: the former embodies the principle of inequality, while democracy represents that of equality. This paper explores the intellectual heritage of this thesis, in the ‘functional theory’ of G.D.H. Cole and Otto Bauer and in the writings of Eduard Bernstein. It scrutinizes Polanyi's relationship with Bernstein's ‘evolutionary socialism’ and charts his ‘double movement’ vis-à-vis Marxist philosophy: in the 1910s he reacted sharply against Marxism's deterministic excesses, but he then, in the 1920s, engaged in sympathetic dialogue with Austro-Marxist thinkers. The latter, like Bernstein, disavowed economic determinism and insisted upon the importance and autonomy of ethics. Yet they simultaneously predicted a law-like expansion of democracy from the political to the economic arena. Analysis of this contradiction provides the basis for a concluding discussion that reconsiders the deterministic threads in Polanyi's oeuvre. Whereas for some Polanyi scholars these attest to his residual attraction to Marxism, I argue that matters are more complex. While Polanyi did repudiate the more rigidly deterministic of currents in Marxist philosophy, those to which he was attracted, notably Bernstein's ‘revision’ and Austro-Marxism, incorporated a deterministic fatalism of their own, in respect of democratization. Herein lies a more convincing explanation of Polanyi's incomplete escape from a deterministic philosophy of history, as exemplified in his masterwork, The great transformation

Should oncoplastic breast conserving surgery be used for the treatment of early stage breast cancer? Using the GRADE approach for development of clinical recommendations

Introduction: The potential advantages of oncoplastic breast conserving surgery (BCS) have not been validated in robust studies that constitute high levels of evidence, despite oncoplastic techniques being widely adopted around the globe. There is hence the need to define the precise role of oncoplastic BCS in the treatment of early breast cancer, with consensual recommendations for clinical practice. Methods: A panel of world-renowned breast specialists was convened to evaluate evidence, express personal viewpoints and establish recommendations for the use of oncoplastic BCS as primary treatment of unifocal early stage breast cancers using the GRADE approach. Results: According to the results of the systematic review of literature, the panelists were asked to comment on the recommendation for use of oncoplastic BCS for treatment of operable breast cancer that is suitable for breast conserving surgery, with the GRADE approach. Based on the voting outcome, the following recommendation emerged as a consensus statement: Oncoplastic breast conserving surgery should be recommended versus standard breast conserving surgery for the treatment of operable breast cancer in adult women who are suitable candidates for breast conserving surgery (with very low certainty of evidence). Discussion: This review has revealed a low level of evidence for most of the important outcomes in oncoplastic surgery with lack of any randomized data and absence of standard tools for evaluation of clinical outcomes and especially patients’ values. Despite areas of controversy, about one-third (36%) of panel members expressed a strong recommendation in support of oncoplastic BCS. Presumably, this reflects a synthesis of views on the relative complexity of these techniques, associated complications, impact on quality of life and costs