624 research outputs found

    Challenges and prospects of new plant breeding techniques for GABA improvement in crops: tomato as an example

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    [EN] Over the last seven decades, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has attracted great attention from scientists for its ubiquity in plants, animals and microorganisms and for its physiological implications as a signaling molecule involved in multiple pathways and processes. Recently, the food and pharmaceutical industries have also shown significantly increased interest in GABA, because of its great potential benefits for human health and the consumer demand for health-promoting functional compounds, resulting in the release of a plethora of GABA-enriched products. Nevertheless, many crop species accumulate appreciable GABA levels in their edible parts and could help to meet the daily recommended intake of GABA for promoting positive health effects. Therefore, plant breeders are devoting much effort into breeding elite varieties with improved GABA contents. In this regard, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), the most produced and consumed vegetable worldwide and a fruit-bearing model crop, has received much consideration for its accumulation of remarkable GABA levels. Although many different strategies have been implemented, from classical crossbreeding to induced mutagenesis, new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) have achieved the best GABA accumulation results in red ripe tomato fruits along with shedding light on GABA metabolism and gene functions. In this review, we summarize, analyze and compare all the studies that have substantially contributed to tomato GABA breeding with further discussion and proposals regarding the most recent NPBTs that could bring this process to the next level of precision and efficiency. This document also provides guidelines with which researchers of other crops might take advantage of the progress achieved in tomato for more efficient GABA breeding programsPG is grateful to the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science for the JSPS postdoctoral grant FY2019-P19105Gramazio, P.; Takayama, M.; Ezura, H. (2020). Challenges and prospects of new plant breeding techniques for GABA improvement in crops: tomato as an example. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11:1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.577980S1161

    Hodge metrics and positivity of direct images

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    Building on Fujita-Griffiths method of computing metrics on Hodge bundles, we show that the direct image of an adjoint semi-ample line bundle by a projective submersion has a continuous metric with Griffiths semi-positive curvature. This shows that for every holomorphic semi-ample vector bundle EE on a complex manifold, and every positive integer kk, the vector bundle SkEdetES^kE\otimes\det E has a continuous metric with Griffiths semi-positive curvature. If EE is ample on a projective manifold, the metric can be made smooth and Griffiths positive.Comment: revised and expanded version of "A positivity property of ample vector bundles

    Chemotherapy for elderly patients with GI cancer

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    Chemotherapy for cancer has significantly improved owing to the increasing number of effective chemotherapeutic agents and supportive care. Recently, the number of older cancer patients has rapidly increased owing to the aging of the global population. However, in most cases, it is difficult to treat those using similar dosages or schedules as that of younger patients because older patients generally have unfavorable factors, such as decreased performance status and physical and cognitive conditions, thus increasing the incidence of complications and side effects. Chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers has made significant progress in recent years with the introduction of molecular-targeted agents and immunotherapy. However, clinical trials showed limited evidence regarding the efficacy of chemotherapy in older cancer patients, accounting for half of all patients, making it difficult to develop a well-established treatment strategy. This review aimed to evaluate the current state of chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer in older adults. Furthermore, the limitations and future perspectives were discussed

    Molecular Imaging in Endoscopy

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    During the last decade, researchers have made great progress in the development of new image processing technologies for gastrointestinal endoscopy. However, diagnosis using conventional endoscopy with white light optical imaging is essentially limited, and ultimately, we still rely on the histopathological diagnosis from biopsy specimens. Molecular imaging represents the most novel imaging methods in medicine, and the future of endoscopic diagnosis is likely to be impacted by a combination of biomarkers and technology. Endoscopic molecular imaging can be defined as the visualization of molecular characteristics with endoscopy. These innovations will allow us not only to locate a tumor or dysplastic lesion but also to visualize its molecular characteristics and the activity of specific molecules and biological processes that affect tumor behavior and/or its response to therapy. In the near future, these promising technologies will play a central role in endoluminal oncology

    Electromagnetic transitions of excited baryons in a deformed oscillator quark model

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    We study electromagnetic transitions of excited baryons in a deformed oscillator quark model, where baryon excited states are described as rotational bands of deformed intrinsic states. We describe all necessary tools to compute transition amplitudes in multipole basis, which are then related to the commonly used helicity amplitudes. We pay a special attention on the sign of the amplitudes as well as their absolute values by computing the photon and pion couplings simultaneously. We have found that the effect of deformation on the transition amplitudes is rather weak. The difficulty in reproducing the empirical amplitude of the Roper state is discussed.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX2e, epsf.sty and AMSLaTeX package are required; typos corrected, published versio

    Endoscopy in Nonvariceal UGI Bleeding

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    Nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization and a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recently developed endoscopic devices and supporting apparatuses can achieve endoscopic hemostasis with greater safety and efficiency. With these advancements in technology and technique, gastroenterologists should have no concerns regarding the management of acute upper GI bleeding, provided that they are well prepared and trained. However, when endoscopic hemostasis fails, endoscopy should not be continued. Rather, endoscopists should refer patients to radiologists and surgeons without any delay for evaluation regarding the appropriateness of emergency interventional radiology or surgery
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