Heavy metal accumulation in Artemisia and foliaceous lichen species from the Azerbaijan flora

Artemisia plants and foliaceous lichens are known to be capable of accumulating heavy metals (HM) from soil and air. These plant species are widespread on polluted sites of Azerbaijan. However, so far their capacity to accumulate HM in their shoots and roots has not been tested. Three Artemisia and two lichen species were collected from different contaminated sites of Azerbaijan. Plant and surface soil samples were measured for Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni and Zn concentrations by ICP-AES.The results indicated that among the Artemisia species A. scoparia showed the best HM accumulation properties. Lichen species were also distinguished by very high amounts of HM in their biomass, while in surrounding soil samples HM concentrations had higher contents than the soils occupied only with Artemisia species.The results indicate that on contaminated sites Artemisia and lichens accumulated metals in their biomass without toxicity symptoms. Taking large biomass and high adaptation ability into account, A. scoparia represents a good tool for a phytoremediation approach on polluted soils

Multiband superconductivity in the correlated electron filled skutterudite system Pr(1-x)Ce(x)Pt4Ge12

Studies of superconductivity in multiband correlated electronic systems has become one of the central topics in condensed matter/materials physics. In this paper, we present the results of thermodynamic measurements on the superconducting filled skutterudite system Pr$_{1-x}$Ce$_x$Pt$_4$Ge$_{12}$ ($0 \leq x \leq 0.2$) to investigate how substitution of Ce at Pr sites affects superconductivity. We find that an increase in Ce concentration leads to a suppression of the superconducting transition temperature from $T_{c}\sim 7.9$ K for $x=0$ to $T_c\sim 0.6$ K for $x=0.14$. Our analysis of the specific heat data for $x\leq 0.07$ reveals that superconductivity must develop in at least two bands: the superconducting order parameter has nodes on one Fermi pocket and remains fully gapped on the other. Both the nodal and nodeless gap values decrease, with the nodal gap being suppressed more strongly, with Ce substitution. Ultimately, the higher Ce concentration samples ($x>0.07$) display a nodeless gap only.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Türk toplumunda gözlenen ilk hemoglobin g-waimanalo ve hemoglobin fontainebleau olguları]

[No abstract available

Biembeddings of cycle systems using integer Heffter arrays

In this paper, we use constructions of Heffter arrays to verify the existence of face 2‐colorable embeddings of cycle decompositions of the complete graph. Specifically, for n ≡ 1 (mod 4) and k ≡3(mod 4), n k ≫ ⩾ 7 and when n ≡ 0(mod 3) then k ≡ 7(mod 12), there exist face 2-colorable embeddings of the complete graph K₂ₙₖ₊₁ onto an orientable surface where each face is a cycle of a fixed length k. In these embeddings the vertices of K₂ₙₖ₊₁ will be labeled with the elements of Z₂ₙₖ₊₁ in such a way that the group, (Z₂ₙₖ₊₁, +) acts sharply transitively on the vertices of the embedding. This result is achieved by verifying the existence of nonequivalent Heffter arrays, H (n ; k), which satisfy the conditions: (1) for each row and each column the sequential partial sums determined by the natural ordering must be distinct modulo 2nk + 1; (2) the composition of the natural orderings of the rows and columns is equivalent to a single cycle permutation on the entries in the array. The existence of Heffter arrays H (n ; k) that satisfy condition (1) was established earlier in Burrage et al. and in this current paper, we vary this construction and show, for k ⩾ 11, that there are at least (n − 2)[((k − 11)/4)!/ ]² such nonequivalent H (n ; k) that satisfy both conditions (1) and (2)

Clinical spectrum of early onset “Mediterranean” (homozygous p.P131L mutation) mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy

Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE) is an autosomal recessive mitochondrial disorder characterized by cumulative and progressive gastrointestinal and neurological findings. This retrospective observational study, aimed to explore the time of presentation, diagnosis and clinical follow-up of 13 patients with a confirmed MNGIE disease of Mediterranean origin. The mean age of symptom onset was 7 years (6 months−21 years) and the average diagnosis age was 15.4 years ±8.4. Four of 13 patients (30%) died before 30 years at the mean age of 19.7 years ±6.8. Cachexia and gastrointestinal symptoms were observed in all patients (100%). The mean body mass index standard deviation score at diagnosis was 4.8 ± 2.8. At least three subocclusive episodes were presented in patients who died in last year of their life. The main neurological symptom found in most patients was peripheral neuropathy (92%). Ten patients (77%) had leukoencephalopathy and the remaining three patients without were under 10 years of age. The new homozygous “Mediterranean” TYMP mutation, p.P131L (c.392 C > T) was associated with an early presentation and poor prognosis in nine patients (69%) from five separates families. Based on the observations from this Mediterranean MNGIE cohort, we propose that the unexplained abdominal pain combined with cachexia is an indicator of MNGIE. High-platelet counts and nerve conduction studies may be supportive laboratory findings and the frequent subocclusive episodes could be a negative prognostic factor for mortality. Finally, the homozygous p.P131L (c.392 C > T) mutation could be associated with rapid progressive disease with poor prognosis

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with reduced toxicity conditioning regimen in mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalopathy syndrome

Background Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder due to mutations in the TYMP gene. Clinical findings are characterized by neurologic manifestations and severe gastrointestinal dysfunction. The syndrome is usually fatal, the most effective treatment appears to be hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Procedure In this retrospective study, we evaluated HSCT that was performed using a reduced toxicity myeloablative conditioning regimen in patients with MNGIE at our center. Results A total of six allogeneic transplant procedures were performed in four patients. Three patients had fully matched donors, and one patient had a haploidentical donor. Treosulfan-based myeloablative conditioning regimen was applied in five of six transplants. Bone marrow was used as a stem cell source. One patient is being followed up in the 4th year of posttransplant with full chimeric and without graft versus host disease (GVHD). One patient died of acute stage IV gastrointestinal system GVHD. Two patients underwent second transplantation due to engraftment failure, one of which was the patient who had a haploidentical transplant. Conclusions Treosulfan-based regimen is well tolerated, although engraftment failure with this conditioning regimen can be a significant problem. We share our haploidentical transplant experience, which will be the first reported case in the literature

METIS research advances towards the 5G mobile and wireless system definition

[EN] The Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society (METIS) project is laying the foundations of Fifth Generation (5G) mobile and wireless communication system putting together the point of view of vendors, operators, vertical players, and academia. METIS envisions a 5G system concept that efficiently integrates new applications developed in the METIS horizontal topics and evolved versions of existing services and systems. This article provides a first view on the METIS system concept, highlights the main features including architecture, and addresses the challenges while discussing perspectives for the further research work.Part of this work has been performed in the framework of the FP7 project ICT-317669 METIS, which is partly funded by the European Commission. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues in METIS with special thanks to Petar Popovski, Peter Fertl, David Gozalvez-Serrano, Andreas Hoglund, Zexian Li, and Krystian Pawlak. Also thanks to Josef Eichinger and Malte Schellmann for the fruitful discussions during the revision of this article.Monserrat Del Río, JF.; Mange, G.; Braun, V.; Tullberg, H.; Zimmermann, G.; Bulakci, O. (2015). METIS research advances towards the 5G mobile and wireless system definition. 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