INVESTIGATION ON THE NUMBER AND SIZE OF THE LEAVES IN SOME OLD DOMESTIC AND NEW TOBACCO VARIETIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Investigations were carried out with five old domestic oriental tobaccos of the types: Prilep (P 10–3/2 and P 12–2/1), Djebel (Dj №1) and Yaka (YK 7–4/2 and KY)and five commercial oriental varieties of Prilep tobacco (P–23, P–84, NS–72, P–66–9/7 and P–79–94), to study the number, length, width and area of the middle belt leaves per stalk. The trial was set up inthe Experimental field of Tobacco Institute–Prilep in 2013 and 2014, in randomized block design with three replications, using traditional agricultural practices. The aim of the investigation is to study some autochthonous varieties and new commercial varieties for the stated quantitative traits, and with analysis of variance to estimate the significance of differences by varieties and years, which will improve our knowledge on stability of the traits, genotypical homogeneity and progress in selection of oriental tobacco in the Republic of Macedonia. Differences in leaf the number and size among genotypes in the two-year investigations are highly significant, which is genetic indicator of their mutual differences. The error of the mean value is low, indicating stability and homozygosity of the genotypes. The variety P–66–9/7 is characterized with the highest number of leaves ( x = 60) and it has 33 leaves more than YK 7–4/2 and Dj №1. The largest leaf size was measured in P–79–94 ( x = 23,3cm – length, 12,1 cm –width, 179 cm2–area). It has 4,8 cm longer, 3,2 cm wider and 74,5 cm2 larger leaves then YK 7–4/2, which is characterized by the smallest leaves. These data point out to a successful breeding activity of the Tobacco Institute in the selection of oriental aromatic tobaccos. Through evaluation of stability of varieties, the breeder improves its knowledge ontheir homozygosity and higher security in the choice of parental pairs for implementing selection programs

Nanoparticles can wrap epithelial cell membranes and relocate them across the epithelial cell layer

Although the link between the inhalation of nanoparticles and cardiovascular disease is well established, the causal pathway between nanoparticle exposure and increased activity of blood coagulation factors remains unexplained. To initiate coagulation tissue factor bearing epithelial cell membranes should be exposed to blood, on the other side of the less than a micrometre thin air-blood barrier. For the inhaled nanoparticles to promote coagulation, they need to bind lung epithelial-cell membrane parts and relocate them into the blood. To assess this hypothesis, we use advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to show that the nanoparticles wrap themselves with epithelial-cell membranes, leading to the membrane's disruption. The membrane-wrapped nanoparticles are then observed to freely diffuse across the damaged epithelial cell layer relocating epithelial cell membrane parts over the epithelial layer. Proteomic analysis of the protein content in the nanoparticles wraps/corona finally reveals the presence of the coagulation-initiating factors, supporting the proposed causal link between the inhalation of nanoparticles and cardiovascular disease

Linking Human Diseases to Animal Models Using Ontology-Based Phenotype Annotation

A novel method for quantifying the similarity between phenotypes by the use of ontologies can be used to search for candidate genes, pathway members, and human disease models on the basis of phenotypes alone

A compact and cost-effective hard X-ray free-electron laser driven by a high-brightness and low-energy electron beam

We present the first lasing results of SwissFEL, a hard X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) that recently came into operation at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. SwissFEL is a very stable, compact and cost-effective X-ray FEL facility driven by a low-energy and ultra-low-emittance electron beam travelling through short-period undulators. It delivers stable hard X-ray FEL radiation at 1-Å wavelength with pulse energies of more than 500 μJ, pulse durations of ~30 fs (root mean square) and spectral bandwidth below the per-mil level. Using special configurations, we have produced pulses shorter than 1 fs and, in a different set-up, broadband radiation with an unprecedented bandwidth of ~2%. The extremely small emittance demonstrated at SwissFEL paves the way for even more compact and affordable hard X-ray FELs, potentially boosting the number of facilities worldwide and thereby expanding the population of the scientific community that has access to X-ray FEL radiation

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Effect of climate on the development of tobacco

of factors have an impact on the todacco that allow or interfere the tobacco plant to express its biological and production potentials. Except the biological potential of the varieties, the larges influence have taken scientific farming methods and agro ecological conditions during the growing season. In the period from 2007 to 2009 the climate conditions had the greatest importance for the development of tobacco. The experiment was placed in the region of Vels on two oriental varieties prilep NS 72 and yaka JV 125. Two technologies were being compared: classical seedling production as a control and floating seedling production. There is statistically significant difference between percentage of accepted plants between harvest 2007 compared to 2008 and harvest 2007 compared to 2009. The obtained yield gave different results for individual years. The highest average yeld of green mass of tobacco ( kg/ha ) was obtained in 2008, for all tested variants. With lowest yield stands out 2007 th