Genetic diversity of Agrobacterium vitis strains, isolated from grapevines and wild grapes in Bulgaria, assessed by Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences analysis of 16S-23S rDNA

Nineteen tumorigenic Agrobacterium vitis strains isolated from commercial vineyards and wild grapes at different locations in Bulgaria were studied in relation to the Ti plasmid type and chromosomal background. The PCR analysis showed that all but one of the strains harbor an octopine/cucumopine type of Ti plasmid and one carries a vitopine type. The genetic diversity among the studied strains and 20 more A. vitis strains originating from different geographic regions in Europe, Asia, USA and South Africa was assessed by Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences (CAPS) analysis of 16S-23S rDNA region. The comparison of the obtained CAPS profiles and performed cluster analysis showed a high level of polymorphism among the studied strains distributed in totally 15 different groups within two main clusters. All Bulgarian strains are located in only three groups within one of the clusters. A high level of correlation between the chromosomal background and type of the carried Ti plasmids was found. The performed CAPS analysis demonstrated that all A. vitis strains isolated from wild grapes (V. vinifera ssp. silvestris) showed CAPS profiles identical with a number of strains isolated from commercial vineyards from different vine-growing regions in Bulgaria. A possible origin of this group of strains from an ancestral A. vitis strain, which initially inhabits wild grapes (V. vinifera ssp. silvestris) and later has been disseminated to cultivated grapevines is proposed

PERCEPTION OF Er-YAG LASER DENTAL CARIES TREATMENT IN ADOLESCENTS - A CLINICAL EVALUATION.

The aim of this study was to evaluate adolescents’ acceptance and pain perception of Er-YAG laser preparation in comparison to conventional mechanical preparation. Material and methods: Forty four adolescents between the age of 16 and 18 years with bilateral matched pairs of carious permanent molars participated in this study. In each patient one of the 2 cavities was prepared conventionally, the other with the Er-YAG laser. All cavities were restored with light-cured composite resin following the application of acid etch and a bonding agent. The patients were instructed to rate pain (sensitivity) during treatment according to visual analogue scale and to decide which method they would prefer for their future caries treatment. Results: The patients rated lower pain perception during laser treatment. It was found that 86.36 % of the adolescents indicated that they would prefer the Er:YAG laser preparation for further caries treatment. Conclusion: The application of the Er-YAG laser for carious tissue removal, compared to conventional mechanical preparation, is perceived as more comfortable and the adolescents prefer it for a future treatment

Difference equation for tracking perturbations in systems of Boolean nested canalyzing functions

This paper studies the spread of perturbations through networks composed of Boolean functions with special canalyzing properties. Canalyzing functions have the property that at least for one value of one of the inputs the output is fixed, irrespective of the values of the other inputs. In this paper the focus is on partially nested canalyzing functions, in which multiple, but not all inputs have this property in a cascading fashion. They naturally describe many relationships in real networks. For example, in a gene regulatory network, the statement “if gene A is expressed, then gene B is not expressed regardless of the states of other genes” implies that A is canalyzing. On the other hand, the additional statement “if gene A is not expressed, and gene C is expressed, then gene B is automatically expressed; otherwise gene B\u27s state is determined by some other type of rule” implies that gene B is expressed by a partially nested canalyzing function with more than two variables, but with two canalyzing variables. In this paper a difference equation model of the probability that a network node\u27s value is affected by an initial perturbation over time is developed, analyzed, and validated numerically. It is shown that the effect of a perturbation decreases towards zero over time if the Boolean functions are canalyzing in sufficiently many variables. The maximum dynamical impact of a perturbation is shown to be comparable to the average impact for a wide range of values of the average sensitivity of the network. Percolation limits are also explored; these are parameter values which generate a transition of the expected perturbation effect to zero as other parameters are varied, so that the initial perturbation does not scale up with the parameters once the percolation limits are reached

Organizational And Economic Characteristics Of Compensations For Temporary Loss Of Capacity To Work

The insurance for general diseases with temporary incapacity to work has specific features due to the specifics of the risk it covers. Such diseases are very frequent but usually mild and entail specific consequences, such as reduction or loss of income due to sick leaves. The object of research is the insurance for of general diseases and its subject is the organizational framework and the regulations regarding the benefits for temporary incapacity for work. The aim of this study is to investigate the organizational and economic characteristics of benefits for temporary incapacity for work due to general disease in certain of the European Union and formulate guidelines for organizational development and improvement of the social security system in Bulgaria

Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma – Characteristics, Diagnosis and Treatment

Ювенилният назофарингеален ангиофибром е рядък съдов тумор, срещащ се с честота под 0,5% от всички тумори на главата и шията. Въпреки че е хистологично бенигнен, той притежава локална инвазивност, подобно на злокачествените неоплазми. Лечението до ден-днешен е сериозно предизвикателство, криещо множество рискове от тежки, понякога животозастрашаващи усложнения.Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma is a rare high vascular tumor with a frequency of less than 0,5% of all head and neck tumors. Although histologicaly benign, it possess invasiveness similar to malignant neoplasms. The treatment is still a challenge with risk of sometimes lifethreatening complications

Optical measurements of electrophoretic suspension kinetics

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was originally used for formation of coatings, e. g. in the automotive industry. Recently EPD is successfully utili zed for thin film preparation with an app lication in the optics and electronics. This paper investigates the process of the suspension formation and aggregation by ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy (UV- VIS) spectroscopy and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) methods. The suspensions were formed by a precipitation of solution of poly[2-methoxy-5-(3 ′ ,7 ′ -dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] in toluene using acetonitrile as a precipitator. It could be concluded that the progressive suspension particle growth observed by DLS affects regularly the first derivative of the UV-VIS spectra. By a comparison of the results obtained by both methods it could be seen that UV-VIS spectroscopy combined with the spline method could be successfully used for an estimation of electrophoretic suspensions

TEnvR: MATLAB-Based Toolbox for Environmental Research

With the advancements in science and technology, datasets become larger and more multivariate, which warrants the need for programming tools for fast data processing and multivariate statistical analysis. Here, the MATLAB-based Toolbox for Environmental Research TEnvR (pronounced ten-ver ) is introduced. This novel toolbox includes 44 open-source codes for automated data analysis from a multitude of techniques, such as ultraviolet-visible, fluorescence, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, as well as from ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry. Provided are codes for processing data (e.g., spectral corrections, formula assignment), visualization of figures, calculation of metrics, multivariate statistics, and automated work-up of large datasets. TEnvR allows for efficient data analysis with minimal by-hand manual work by the user, which allows scientists to do research more efficiently. This manuscript is supplemented with a detailed tutorial, example data, and screenshots, which collectively provide instructions on how to use all codes. TEnvR is novice-friendly and experience in programming with MATLAB is not required. TEnvR fulfills the need for a concise MATLAB-based toolbox for working with environmental data and will be updated annually to keep pace with the latest advances and needs for computational work in the environmental sciences