Screening of the antioxidant, antimicrobial and DNA damage protection potentials of the aqueous extract of Asplenium ceterach DC.

In this study, in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial and DNA damage protection potentials of the aqueous extract of Asplenium ceterach was firstly evaluated in addition to its total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Antioxidant activity was determined by five complementary test systems named β- carotene/linoleic acid, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging, reducing power, chelating effect and phosphomolibdenum methods. Except for chelating effect assay, the extract exhibited remarkable activity potential. Antimicrobial activity was determined by agar-well diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration tests. In this case, Shigella dysenteriae and Staphylococcus aureus were found to be the most sensitive microorganisms. According to the electrophoretic pattern of pBR322 plasmid DNA after treatment with UV and H2O2, supercoiled DNA was successfully protected in the presence of 20 mg/ml or above concentrations of aqueous extract.Key words: Antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, DNA damage protection, Asplenium ceterach

Minnesota’s Hardy Plums: The Story of a Fruit and its Ties to Rural and Urban Landscapes

A paper presented at the 2017 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.The state of Minnesota experiences some of the most prolonged periods of extreme cold in the continental United States. The famously frigid winters make Minnesota about the last place one would expect to find fruit trees, which is the reality settlers faced when they began arriving in the mid 1800s. The determination of a handful of fruit growers who vowed to change this fate helped establish the University of Minnesota fruit breeding programme in 1878. Since then, the programme has developed over 100 hardy fruit varieties, including apples, grapes, plums, cherries, apricots, pears, and berries. In this Upper Midwest state where early settlers lamented the lack of fresh fruit, commercial orchards are now abundant and home owners include fruit trees in their gardens. In recent years, the University of Minnesota fruit breeding programme has focused on apples and grapes, yet the programme’s early work on plums effectively changed the food landscape for people in northern regions. For almost 140 years, these plum varieties have played an important role in the story of cold climate fruit production: from early settlers seeking food to survive, to today’s consumers seeking a return to locally produced food

Ariel - Volume 8 Number 5

Executive Editor James W. Lockard. Jr. Business Manager Neeraj K. Kanwal University News Martin Trichtinger World News Doug Hiller Opinions Elizabeth A. McGuire Features Patrick P. Sokas Sports Desk Shahab S. Minassian Managing Editor Edward H. Jasper Managing Associate Brenda Peterson Photography Editor Robert D. Lehman, Jr. Graphics Christine M. Kuhnl

The identity (re)construction of nonnative English teachers stepping into native Turkish teachers’ shoes

The present study explored the identity (re)construction of five nonnative English teachers who went to the USA on a prestigious scholarship for one year to teach their native language, Turkish. In that sense, it investigated how this shift from being a nonnative English teacher to a native Turkish teacher influenced their self-image, self-efficacy, and beliefs about teaching/learning. The data were collected mainly through three different instruments: a personal data questionnaire, ongoing controlled journals along with follow-up questions, and interviews. All the qualitative data were first analyzed according to Boyatzis’ [(1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Sage) thematic analysis, and then the emerging themes were related to three sensitizing concepts, which were (a) self-image, (b) self-efficacy, and (c) beliefs about teaching and learning. The findings revealed that (a) the participating teachers in this study had high(er) self-efficacy but low(er) self-image when teaching English compared to Turkish because of their idealization of native speaker norms; (b) their multiple identities were interacting with each other, and shifting from being a native to a nonnative, and a language teacher to a language user; and (c) their beliefs about teaching and learning coming from their core identity as an English language teacher worked as a catalyst in this process. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Imatinib Reverses Doxorubicin Resistance by Affecting Activation of STAT3-Dependent NF-κB and HSP27/p38/AKT Pathways and by Inhibiting ABCB1

Despite advances in cancer detection and prevention, a diagnosis of metastatic disease remains a death sentence due to the fact that many cancers are either resistant to chemotherapy (conventional or targeted) or develop resistance during treatment, and residual chemoresistant cells are highly metastatic. Metastatic cancer cells resist the effects of chemotherapeutic agents by upregulating drug transporters, which efflux the drugs, and by activating proliferation and survival signaling pathways. Previously, we found that c-Abl and Arg non-receptor tyrosine kinases are activated in breast cancer, melanoma, and glioblastoma cells, and promote cancer progression. In this report, we demonstrate that the c-Abl/Arg inhibitor, imatinib (imatinib mesylate, STI571, Gleevec), reverses intrinsic and acquired resistance to the anthracycline, doxorubicin, by inducing G2/M arrest and promoting apoptosis in cancer cells expressing highly active c-Abl and Arg. Significantly, imatinib prevents intrinsic resistance by promoting doxorubicin-mediated NF-κB/p65 nuclear localization and repression of NF-κB targets in a STAT3-dependent manner, and by preventing activation of a novel STAT3/HSP27/p38/Akt survival pathway. In contrast, imatinib prevents acquired resistance by inhibiting upregulation of the ABC drug transporter, ABCB1, directly inhibiting ABCB1 function, and abrogating survival signaling. Thus, imatinib inhibits multiple novel chemoresistance pathways, which indicates that it may be effective in reversing intrinsic and acquired resistance in cancers containing highly active c-Abl and Arg, a critical step in effectively treating metastatic disease. Furthermore, since imatinib converts a master survival regulator, NF-κB, from a pro-survival into a pro-apoptotic factor, our data suggest that NF-κB inhibitors may be ineffective in sensitizing tumors containing activated c-Abl/Arg to anthracyclines, and instead might antagonize anthracycline-induced apoptosis

The Wool Mulch System of Producing Strawberries: A Manual for Commercial Growers in Minnesota

A production manual with photographs detailing the use of wool mulch and canola as part of an alternative method of producing annual strawberries in Minnesota.This manual was developed after ten years of research on a new system of producing strawberries using a combination of wool mulch and a canola cover crop/mulch. The wool mulch – a locally produced, biodegradable and renewable product – is used in the strawberry rows, and functions as a weed deterrent while also regulating soil temperature, retaining moisture and suppressing many diseases. The canola is used before planting as a weed suppressing cover crop. Later, canola is used between the rows of strawberries where it continues its role as weed suppressant. Only two herbicide applications are used in the system, both on the canola, which is a reduction from conventional methods

Neighborhoods of trees in circular orderings

In phylogenetics, a common strategy used to construct an evolutionary tree for a set of species X is to search in the space of all such trees for one that optimizes some given score function (such as the minimum evolution, parsimony or likelihood score). As this can be computationally intensive, it was recently proposed to restrict such searches to the set of all those trees that are compatible with some circular ordering of the set X. To inform the design of efficient algorithms to perform such searches, it is therefore of interest to find bounds for the number of trees compatible with a fixed ordering in the neighborhood of a tree that is determined by certain tree operations commonly used to search for trees: the nearest neighbor interchange (nni), the subtree prune and regraft (spr) and the tree bisection and reconnection (tbr) operations. We show that the size of such a neighborhood of a binary tree associated with the nni operation is independent of the tree’s topology, but that this is not the case for the spr and tbr operations. We also give tight upper and lower bounds for the size of the neighborhood of a binary tree for the spr and tbr operations and characterize those trees for which these bounds are attained

Orientational phase transitions in the hexagonal phase of a diblock copolymer melt under shear flow

We generalize the earlier theory by Fredrickson [J. Rheol. v.38, 1045 (1994)] to study the orientational behaviour of the hexagonal phase of diblock copolymer melt subjected to steady shear flow. We use symmetry arguments to show that the orientational ordering in the hexagonal phase is a much weaker effect than in the lamellae. We predict the parallel orientation to be stable at low and the perpendicular orientation at high shear rates. Our analysis reproduces the experimental results by Tepe et al. [Macromolecules v.28, 3008 (1995)] and explains the difficulties in experimental observation of the different orientations in the hexagonal phase.Comment: 21 pages, 6 eps figures, submitted to Physical Review

Turner syndrome and associated problems in turkish children: A multicenter study

Objective: Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal disorder caused by complete or partial X chromosome monosomy that manifests various clinical features depending on the karyotype and on the genetic background of affected girls. This study aimed to systematically investigate the key clinical features of TS in relationship to karyotype in a large pediatric Turkish patient population. Methods: Our retrospective study included 842 karyotype-proven TS patients aged 0-18 years who were evaluated in 35 different centers in Turkey in the years 2013-2014. Results: The most common karyotype was 45,X (50.7%), followed by 45,X/46,XX (10.8%), 46,X,i(Xq) (10.1%) and 45,X/46,X,i(Xq) (9.5%). Mean age at diagnosis was 10.2±4.4 years. The most common presenting complaints were short stature and delayed puberty. Among patients diagnosed before age one year, the ratio of karyotype 45,X was significantly higher than that of other karyotype groups. Cardiac defects (bicuspid aortic valve, coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosi) were the most common congenital anomalies, occurring in 25% of the TS cases. This was followed by urinary system anomalies (horseshoe kidney, double collector duct system and renal rotation) detected in 16.3%. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was found in 11.1% of patients, gastrointestinal abnormalities in 8.9%, ear nose and throat problems in 22.6%, dermatologic problems in 21.8% and osteoporosis in 15.3%. Learning difficulties and/or psychosocial problems were encountered in 39.1%. Insulin resistance and impaired fasting glucose were detected in 3.4% and 2.2%, respectively. Dyslipidemia prevalence was 11.4%. Conclusion: This comprehensive study systematically evaluated the largest group of karyotype-proven TS girls to date. The karyotype distribution, congenital anomaly and comorbidity profile closely parallel that from other countries and support the need for close medical surveillance of these complex patients throughout their lifespan. © Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology

Durability of Treatment Effect Using a Drug-Coated Balloon for Femoropopliteal Lesions

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