Antisense repression of sucrose synthase in carrot (Daucus carota L.) affects growth rather than sucrose partitioning

To unravel the roles of sucrose synthase in carrot, we reduced its activity in transgenic carrot plants by an antisense approach. For this purpose, the cDNA for the main form of carrot sucrose synthase was expressed in antisense orientation behind the 35S promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus. In independent antisense plant lines grown in soil, sucrose synthase activity was reduced in tap roots but not in leaves. In the sink organs, sucrose utilization was markedly decreased and higher levels of sucrose but lower levels of UDP-glucose, glucose, fructose, starch and cellulose were found. The phenotype of the antisense plants clearly differed from that of control plants. Both leaves and roots were markedly smaller, and the antisense line with the lowest sucrose synthase activity also developed the smallest plants. In most of the plant lines, the leaf-to-root dry weight ratios were not changed, suggesting that sucrose synthase in carrot is a major determinant of plant growth rather than of sucrose partitioning. In contrast to the acid invertases, which are critical for partitioning of assimilated carbon between source leaves and tap roots (Tang etal., Plant Cell 11: 177-189 (1999)), sucrose synthase appears to be the main sucrose-cleaving activity, feeding sucrose into metabolis

Remote information concentration and multipartite entanglement in multilevel systems

Remote information concentration (RIC) in $d$-level systems (qudits) is studied. It is shown that the quantum information initially distributed in three spatially separated qudits can be remotely and deterministically concentrated to a single qudit via an entangled channel without performing any global operations. The entangled channel can be different types of genuine multipartite pure entangled states which are inequivalent under local operations and classical communication. The entangled channel can also be a mixed entangled state, even a bound entangled state which has a similar form to the Smolin state, but has different features from the Smolin state. A common feature of all these pure and mixed entangled states is found, i.e., they have $d^2$ common commuting stabilizers. The differences of qudit-RIC and qubit-RIC ($d=2$) are also analyzed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Eficácia da intervenção de enfermagem para aumento da esperança em pacientes com câncer: uma meta-análise

Objetivo: meta-análise para avaliar a eficácia da intervenção de enfermagem, no nível de esperança para pacientes com câncer. Método: foram pesquisados bancos de dados eletrônicos. Dois dos autores, de forma independente, extraíram os dados dos estudos elegíveis e os agruparam no software Stata 13.0. Resultado: nove ensaios clínicos randomizados foram incluídos e a qualidade metodológica destes estudos foi avaliada utilizando as recomendações do manual Cochrane. Um modelo de efeito aleatório foi usado para combinar resultados dos estudos elencados. O agrupamento dos resultados por meio de um modelo de efeitos fixos mostrou primeiros escores revelaram um efeito significativamente maior após o uso da intervenção de enfermagem entre os grupos. Foi identificada heterogeneidade entre os estudos para pós-teste (df = 8, p = 0.000; I2 =76.1 %). Os resultados indicaram heterogeneidade significativa nos nove estudos selecionados. O teste para heterogeneidade não demonstrou homogeneidade entre os estudos de acompanhamento (df = 8, p = 0.328; I2 = 12.9 %), mas sem significância estatística. Conclusão: as evidências atuais sugerem que a intervenção de enfermagem tem um efeito positivo no sentimento de esperança em pacientes com câncer. No entanto, são necessários mais ensaios controlados randomizados em maior escala e de alta qualidade para confirmar esses resultados.Objetivo: evaluar la eficacia de la intervención de enfermería para pacientes oncológicos en el nivel de esperanza en un meta análisis. Método: se buscó información en bases de datos electrónicas. Dos de los autores extrajeron de forma independiente los datos de los estudios de elegibilidad, y se utilizó el software Stata 13.0 para agrupar los datos. Resultados: se incluyeron nueve ensayos aleatorios controlados y se evaluó la calidad metodológica del ensayo controlado aleatorizado (ECA) utilizando las recomendaciones del manual Cochrane. Se utilizó un modelo de efectos aleatorios para combinar los resultados de los estudios elegibles. Los resultados agrupados utilizando el modelo de efectos fijos mostraron que las puntuaciones al primer efecto aumentan significativamente después del uso de la intervención de enfermería entre los grupos. Se observó heterogeneidad entre los estudios de post-prueba (df = 8, P = 0.000; I2 =76.1 %). Los resultados indicaron heterogeneidad significativa en los nueve estudios seleccionados. La prueba de heterogeneidad no mostró homogeneidad entre los estudios de seguimiento (df = 8, P = 0.328; I2 = 12.9 %), pero no hay significación estadística. Conclusión: la evidencia actual sugiere que la intervención de enfermería tiene un efecto positivo en la esperanza en pacientes con cáncer. Sin embargo, se necesitan más ensayos controlados aleatorios de gran escala y de alta calidad para confirmar estos resultados.Objective: to evaluate the efficacy of nursing interventions to increase the level of hope in cancer patients, in a meta-analysis. Methods: electronic databases were searched. Two of the authors independently extracted data from the eligible studies, and Stata 13.0 software was used to pool the data. Results: nine randomized controlled trials were included, and methodological quality of each randomized controlled trial (RCT) was evaluated using Cochrane handbook recommendations. A random effects model was used to combine results from eligible studies. The pooled results using the fixed effects model showed that scores to first effects increase significantly after the use of nursing intervention between the groups. Heterogeneity was observed among the studies for posttest (df = 8, P = 0.000; I2 =76.1 %). The results indicated significant heterogeneity across the nine selected studies. The test for heterogeneity showed no homogeneity among studies for follow-up (df = 8, P = 0.328; I2 = 12.9 %), and there was no statistical significance. Conclusion: the current evidence suggests that nursing intervention has a positive effect on hope in cancer patients. However, more large-scale and high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results

Zc(3900)Z_c(3900) as a DDˉ∗D\bar{D}^* molecule from the pole counting rule

A comprehensive study on the nature of the $Z_c(3900)$ resonant structure is carried out in this work. By constructing the pertinent effective Lagrangians and considering the important final-state-interaction effects, we first give a unified description to all the relevant experimental data available, including the $J/\psi\pi$ and $\pi\pi$ invariant mass distributions from the $e^+e^-\to J/\psi\pi\pi$ process, the $h_c\pi$ distribution from $e^+e^-\to h_c\pi\pi$ and also the $D\bar D^{*}$ spectrum in the $e^+e^-\to D\bar D^{*}\pi$ process. After fitting the unknown parameters to the previous data, we search the pole in the complex energy plane and find only one pole in the nearby energy region in different Riemann sheets. Therefore we conclude that $Z_c(3900)$ is of $D\bar D^*$ molecular nature, according to the pole counting rule method~[Nucl.~Phys.~A543, 632 (1992); Phys.~Rev.~D 35,~1633 (1987)]. We emphasize that the conclusion based upon the pole counting method is not trivial, since both the $D\bar D^{*}$ contact interactions and the explicit $Z_c$ exchanges are introduced in our analyses and they lead to the same conclusion.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. To match the published version in PRD. Additional discussion on the spectral density function is include