Genetic reduction of antinutrients in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seed, increases nutrients and in vitro iron bioavailability without depressing main agronomic traits

In common bean, lectins, phytic acid, polyphenols and tannins exert major antinutritional effects when grains are consumed as a staple food. Reduced iron and zinc absorption, low protein digestibility and high toxicity at the intestinal level are the causes of their antinutritional effect. To improve grain nutritional characteristics, the “low phytic acid” (lpa) trait recently obtained in bean and carried by the bean mutant lpa-280-10, was introgressed into different lectin-free (lf) lines, a few of which were white-seeded. The “white seed coat” (wsc) trait is correlated with a reduced amount of tannins and polyphenols in bean seed, and thus higher Fe bioavailability. Lf + lpa bean lines producing colored and white seeds, were developed. Three of these lines were submitted to a first field performance test carried out in two Italian locations, and two of them to biochemical analyses that evaluated fourteen nutritional parameters. Seedling emergence and grain yield of lf + lpa beans were statistically comparable to those of wild type cultivars, confirming the absence of major agronomic defects associated with the lpa trait. The presence of the three genetic traits lf, lpa and wsc in the same genetic background leads to a significant increase of the content of important nutrients such as crude proteins, total zinc, free phosphorus, and, in part, total iron. Iron bioavailability (as measured in vitro via a Caco-2 cell model) in lf + lpa brown and black seeds, was not significantly different from that surveyed in the wild type colored parents, while, it was on average twelve times higher in lf + lpa white bean seeds. Up to now, the white-seeded lf + lpa beans seem thus to be the only materials having really improved nutritional qualities

c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation has a prognostic implication and is negatively associated with FOXO1 activation in gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Since the biological function of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in gastric cancer remains unclear, we investigated the clinical significance of JNK activation and its association with FOXO1 activation. METHODS: Immunohistochemical tissue array analysis of 483 human gastric cancer specimens was performed, and the results of the immunostaining were quantified. The correlation between JNK activation (nuclear staining for pJNK) and clinicopathological features, the proliferation index, prognosis or FOXO1 inactivation (cytoplasmic staining for pFOXO1) was analyzed. The SNU-638 gastric cancer cell line was used for in vitro analysis. RESULTS: Nuclear staining of pJNK was found in 38 % of the gastric carcinomas and was higher in the early stages of pTNM (P < 0.001). pJNK staining negatively correlated with lymphatic invasion (P = 0.034) and positively correlated with intestinal type by Lauren’s classification (P = 0.037), Ki-67-labeling index (P < 0.001), cyclin D1 (P = 0.045), cyclin E (P < 0.001) and pFOXO1 (P < 0.001). JNK activation correlated with a longer patients survival (P =0.008) and patients with a JNK-active and FOXO1-inactive tumor had a higher survival rate than the remainder of the population (P = 0.004). In vitro analysis showed that JNK inhibition by SP600125 in SNU-638 cells decreased cyclin D1 protein expression and increased FOXO1 activation. Further, JNK inhibition markedly suppressed colony formation, which was partially restored by FOXO1 shRNA expression. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that JNK activation may serve as a valuable prognostic factor in gastric cancer, and that it is implicated in gastric tumorigenesis, at least in part, through FOXO1 inhibition

ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION OF SOME CENTAUREA SP. (ASTERACEAE) FROM DIFFERENT ITALIAN ISLANDS

The volatile constituents of leaves and flower heads of several Centaurea spcies from different islands of Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Sea were investigated for the first time. C. veneris (Sommier) Bég. from Palmaria Island (Ligurian Sea),C. gymnocarpa Moris & De Not. from Capraia Island, C. aetaliae (Somm.) Bég. and C. ilvensis (Sommier) Arrigoni from Elba Island (Northern Tyrrhenian Sea); C. aeolica Lojac. subsp. aeolica from Lipari, Aeolian Islands, C. busambarensis Guss., C. panormitana Lojac. subsp. ucriae (Lacaita) Greuter, C. panormitana Lojac. subsp. umbrosa (Fiori) Greuter, C. panormitana Lojac. subsp. todaroi (Lacaita) Greuter, C. panormitana Lojac. subsp. seguenzae (Lacaita) Greuter from different localities in Sicilia (southern Tyrrhenian Sea), were collected at flowering stage. All samples were extracted by steam distillation to obtain the volatile fraction with a yield ranging from 0.02-0.13% in leaves and 0.01-0.09% in flower heads (weight/fresh weight basis), respectively. The oils were then analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS methods and more than 100 compounds belonging to several chemical classes were identified and quantified in all the samples. Sesquiterpenes represent the most abundant class of compounds (22.35-61.67% and 35.16-57.51% of the total volatiles in leaves and flower heads, respectively) of which germacrene D was the dominant constituent (10.03-42.65% and 7.33-30.32% in leaves and flower heads, respectively). Aldehydes, hydrocarbons, ketones, monoterpenes, alcohols, acids, esters and miscellaneous compounds were also identified and quantified in different amount in the volatile oils from all the examined plant organs. Other compounds were also detected and they appear to be species-specific, as their presence was only detected in either one or the other Centaurea species

Volatile components of two endemic species from the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy) Centaurea aachnoidea and C. montis-borlae. (Asteraceae)

The volatile fractions of Centaurea arachnoidea and C. montis-borlae, two endemic species growing wild on the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy), were isolated by steam distillation from fresh leaves and flowerheads and analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. The yield in essential oil ranged from 0.01% to 0.09% of fresh material. A wide variety of volatile compounds was detected in the examined plant species and organs, both in qualitative and quantitative terms. Sesquiterpenes were identified as the major constituents ranging from 18.9% to 73.2% of the total oil. Alcohols (1.6-25.8%), aldehydes (1.5-12.0%), hydrocarbons (1.8-11.9%), acids (0.2-25.4%), esters (0.2-1.3%), monoterpenes (0.7-1.4%), and miscellaneous compounds (0.6-2.6%), were also detected at variable amounts in all different sample tissues. A series of unidentified compounds was also isolated from the two species, both in leaves and flowerheads, accounting for 2.4-6.7% of the total oil. According to MS spectral data, these substances likely belong to the class of polyunsaturated compounds; moreover they appear to be species-specific, as their presence was only detected either in one or in the other Centaurea species

Production/Inventory System Subject ti Failure with Limited Repair Capacity

We consider a production=inventory system consisting of M machines and K (K6M ) repair crews in which machines are subject to timedependent failures. The repair operations on each machine require one repair crew during the whole operation. In this production=inventory system, each machine is assigned to produce a di erent item according to a make-to-stock routine. Inventories of each item service a Poisson demand process, and the unsatisÿed demands are lost. The objective is to minimize the sum of the average holding and lost-sales penalty costs. We formulate the joint problem of (1) allocating the limited number of repairmen to failed machines and (2) deciding how much ÿnished goods inventory to keep as a Markov decision process. We show that the optimal policy has a very complicated structure. We introduce two models to compute optimal base-stock policies in systems with identical machines, where ÿrst break ÿrst repair (FBFR) or preemptive priority (PPRI) repair policies are used. Then we present two heuristics to perform the same optimization analysis in systems with di erent machines. Finally, we compare the combination of the optimal base-stock policy (as the production policy) and the FBFR and PPRI policies (as the repair policies) to the optimal dynamic policy, and through numerical examples we show that this integration creates a solution that is close to the optimal dynamic policy. The results indicate that simple policies for determining ÿnished goods inventory levels and repair crew assignment to failed machines can work well as long as the two problems are addressed in a coordinated manner

Finite Buffer Polling Models with Routing

This paper analyzes a finite buffer polling system with routing. Finite buffers are used to model the limited capacity of the system, and routing is used to represent the need for additional service. The most significant result of the analysis is the derivation of the generating function for queue length when buffer sizes are limited and a representation of the system workload. The queue lengths at polling instants are determined by solving a system of recursive equations, and an embedded Markov chain analysis and numerical inversion are used to derive the queue length distributions. This system may be used to represent production models with setups and lost sales or expediting