Exploring the Potential Roles of Biochars on Land Degradation Mitigation

Land degradation was exacerbated and its management was challenged by population growth and global climate change. The impacts of land degradation on food security, ecosystem services and biodiversity become a more serious problem particularly in developing countries. Biochar, based on the current research findings, is capable to amend degraded lands. This paper reviewed relevant biocharproperties and identified the opportunities of its using for recovering deteriorated lands.Biochar was traditionally recognized as a good absorbent, energy source, and its ash was used by farmers to recover soil fertility. Recent findings revealed that application of biochar improved soil water retention, enhanced soil aggregation, decreased soil bulk density and increased soil infiltration. It also increased soil cation exchange capacity, soil pH, mineral nutrients, reduced nutrient leaching, support microbial population and activities, and suppressed the pest. The sorption capacity of biochar to soil and water pollutants such as Pb, Cu,Ni, Cr, Cd,dioxine, atrazine, and concurrently eliminatedthe environmental problems such as hypoxia, eutrophication, and algae bloom, have also been investigated. Investigation on its role to mitigate climate change revealed that biochar is capable in reducing greenhouse gasesemissions such as CO2, N2O, and CH4. All those beneficial effects of biochars were attributed to its high porosity, large surface area and surface charge, high carbon, ash and nutrient content, and its stability to be degraded. Thus, biochar could be potential for ameliorating degraded lands

Occupational Stress In Medical Workers at Naibonat Hospital

Abstract: Occupational stress is a condition in which the work demands exceed the workers' capabilities, resulting in various adverse reactions to the worker's physical, psychological, and behaviour. The inability to answer these demands is very likely a trigger for work stress, that work stress is a situation where a person faces a task or job that cannot or cannot be reached by his / her abilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the work stress of health workers (nurses, midwives and doctors) and to determine work stress based on aspects of work stress (physiological, psychological and behavioral) in health workers at Naibonat Hospital, Kupang Regency. This type of research is quantitative research. The total sample was 110 health workers, namely 51 nurses, 49 midwives and 10 doctors. In this study, using descriptive analysis to determine the work stress between nurses, midwives and doctors. The results of the descriptive analysis state that there is a comparison of work stress between nurses, midwives and doctors as well as aspects of work stress in terms of aspects (physiology, psychology and behavior) in health workers at Naibonat Hospital, Kupang Regency

Efficient CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis in primary immune cells using CrispRGold and a C57BL/6 Cas9 transgenic mouse line

Applying clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9)-mediated mutagenesis to primary mouse immune cells, we used high-fidelity single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) designed with an sgRNA design tool (CrispRGold) to target genes in primary B cells, T cells, and macrophages isolated from a Cas9 transgenic mouse line. Using this system, we achieved an average knockout efficiency of 80% in B cells. On this basis, we established a robust small-scale CRISPR-mediated screen in these cells and identified genes essential for B-cell activation and plasma cell differentiation. This screening system does not require deep sequencing and may serve as a precedent for the application of CRISPR/Cas9 to primary mouse cells

Ovarian cancer in younger vs older women: a population-based analysis

To compare the clinico-pathologic prognostic factors and survival of younger vs older women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer. Demographic, clinico-pathologic, treatment, and surgery information were obtained from patients with ovarian cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1988 to 2001 and analysed using Kaplan–Meier estimates. Of 28 165 patients, 400 were <30 years (very young), 11 601 were 30–60 (young), and 16 164 were >60 (older) years of age. Of the very young, young, and older patients, 261 (65.3%), 4664 (40.2%), and 3643 (22.5%) had stage I–II disease, respectively (P<0.001). Across all stages, very young women had a significant survival advantage over the young and older groups with 5-year disease-specific survival estimates at 78.8% vs 58.8 and 35.3%, respectively (P<0.001). This survival difference between the age groups persists even after adjusting for race, stage, grade, and surgical treatment. Reproductive age (16–40 years) women with stage I–II epithelial ovarian cancer who received uterine-sparing procedures had similar survivals compared to those who underwent standard surgery (93.3% vs 91.5%, P=0.26). Younger women with epithelial ovarian cancer have a survival advantage compared to older patients

Optimality of mutation and selection in germinal centers

The population dynamics theory of B cells in a typical germinal center could play an important role in revealing how affinity maturation is achieved. However, the existing models encountered some conflicts with experiments. To resolve these conflicts, we present a coarse-grained model to calculate the B cell population development in affinity maturation, which allows a comprehensive analysis of its parameter space to look for optimal values of mutation rate, selection strength, and initial antibody-antigen binding level that maximize the affinity improvement. With these optimized parameters, the model is compatible with the experimental observations such as the ~100-fold affinity improvements, the number of mutations, the hypermutation rate, and the "all or none" phenomenon. Moreover, we study the reasons behind the optimal parameters. The optimal mutation rate, in agreement with the hypermutation rate in vivo, results from a tradeoff between accumulating enough beneficial mutations and avoiding too many deleterious or lethal mutations. The optimal selection strength evolves as a balance between the need for affinity improvement and the requirement to pass the population bottleneck. These findings point to the conclusion that germinal centers have been optimized by evolution to generate strong affinity antibodies effectively and rapidly. In addition, we study the enhancement of affinity improvement due to B cell migration between germinal centers. These results could enhance our understandings to the functions of germinal centers.Comment: 5 figures in main text, and 4 figures in Supplementary Informatio

Maintenance treatment with interferon for advanced ovarian cancer: results of the Northern and Yorkshire gynaecology group randomised phase III study

A randomised phase III trial was conducted to assess the role of interferon-alpha (INFα) 2a as maintenance therapy following surgery and/or chemotherapy in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Patients were randomised following initial surgery/chemotherapy to interferon-alpha 2a as 4.5 mega-units subcutaneously 3 days per week or to no further treatment. A total of 300 patients were randomised within the study between February 1990 and July 1997. No benefit for interferon maintenance was seen in terms of either overall or clinical event-free survival. We conclude that INF-α is not effective as a maintenance therapy in the management of women with ovarian cancer. The need for novel therapeutics or strategies to prevent the almost inevitable relapse of patients despite increasingly effective surgery and chemotherapy remains

Ovarian cancer immunotherapy: opportunities, progresses and challenges

Due to the low survival rates from invasive ovarian cancer, new effective treatment modalities are urgently needed. Compelling evidence indicates that the immune response against ovarian cancer may play an important role in controlling this disease. We herein summarize multiple immune-based strategies that have been proposed and tested for potential therapeutic benefit against advanced stage ovarian cancer. We will examine the evidence for the premise that an effective therapeutic vaccine against ovarian cancer is useful not only for inducing remission of the disease but also for preventing disease relapse. We will also highlight the questions and challenges in the development of ovarian cancer vaccines, and critically discuss the limitations of some of the existing immunotherapeutic strategies. Finally, we will summarize our own experience on the use of patient-specific tumor-derived heat shock protein-peptide complex for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer