Cellular and Secretory Proteins of the Salivary Glands of \u3cem\u3eSciara coprophila\u3c/em\u3e During the Larval-pupal Transformation

The cellular and secretory proteins of the salivary gland of Sciara coprophila during the stages of the larval-pupal transformation were examined by electrophoresis in 0.6 mm sheets of polyacrylamide gel with both SDS-continuous and discontinuous buffer systems. After SDS-electrophoresis, all electrophoretograms of both reduced and nonreduced proteins from single glands stained with Coomassie brilliant blue revealed a pattern containing the same 25 bands during the stages of the larval-pupal transformation. With the staining procedures used in this study, qualitative increases and decreases were detected in existing proteins and enzymes. There was no evidence, however, for the appearance of new protein species that could be correlated with the onset of either pupation or gland histolysis. Electrophoretograms of reduced samples of anterior versus posterior gland parts indicated that no protein in the basic pattern of 25 bands was unique to either the anterior or posterior gland part. Electrophoretograms of reduced samples of secretion collected from either actively feeding or cocoon -building animals showed an electrophoretic pattern containing up to six of the 25 protein fractions detected in salivary gland samples, with varied amounts of these same six proteins in electrophoretograms of secretion samples from a given stage. Zymograms of non-specific esterases in salivary gland samples revealed a progressive increase in the amount of esterase reaction produce in one major band and some decrease in the second major band during later stages of the larval-pupal transformation

Monitoring thermal ablation via microwave tomography. An ex vivo experimental assessment

Thermal ablation treatments are gaining a lot of attention in the clinics thanks to their reduced invasiveness and their capability of treating non-surgical patients. The effectiveness of these treatments and their impact in the hospital's routine would significantly increase if paired with a monitoring technique able to control the evolution of the treated area in real-time. This is particularly relevant in microwave thermal ablation, wherein the capability of treating larger tumors in a shorter time needs proper monitoring. Current diagnostic imaging techniques do not provide effective solutions to this issue for a number of reasons, including economical sustainability and safety. Hence, the development of alternative modalities is of interest. Microwave tomography, which aims at imaging the electromagnetic properties of a target under test, has been recently proposed for this scope, given the significant temperature-dependent changes of the dielectric properties of human tissues induced by thermal ablation. In this paper, the outcomes of the first ex vivo experimental study, performed to assess the expected potentialities of microwave tomography, are presented. The paper describes the validation study dealing with the imaging of the changes occurring in thermal ablation treatments. The experimental test was carried out on two ex vivo bovine liver samples and the reported results show the capability of microwave tomography of imaging the transition between ablated and untreated tissue. Moreover, the discussion section provides some guidelines to follow in order to improve the achievable performances

Locoregional hyperthermia of deep-seated tumours applied with capacitive and radiative systems. A simulation study

Background: Locoregional hyperthermia is applied to deep-seated tumours in the pelvic region. Two very different heating techniques are often applied: capacitive and radiative heating. In this paper, numerical simulations are applied to compare the performance of both techniques in heating of deep-seated tumours. Methods: Phantom simulations were performed for small (30 × 20 × 50 cm 3 ) and large (45 × 30 × 50 cm 3 ), homogeneous fatless and inhomogeneous fat-muscle, tissue-equivalent phantoms with a central or eccentric target region. Radiative heating was simulated with the 70 MHz AMC-4 system and capacitive heating was simulated at 13.56 MHz. Simulations were performed for small fatless, small (i.e. fat layer typically 3 cm) patients with cervix, prostate, bladder and rectum cancer. Temperature distributions were simulated using constant hyperthermic-level perfusion values with tissue constraints of 44 °C and compared for both heating techniques. Results: For the small homogeneous phantom, similar target heating was predicted with radiative and capacitive heating. For the large homogeneous phantom, most effective target heating was predicted with capacitive heating. For inhomogeneous phantoms, hot spots in the fat layer limit adequate capacitive heating, and simulated target temperatures with radiative heating were 2–4 °C higher. Patient simulations predicted therapeutic target temperatures with capacitive heating for fatless patients, but radiative heating was more robust for all tumour sites and patient sizes, yielding target temperatures 1–3 °C higher than those predicted for capacitive heating. Conclusion: Generally, radiative locoregional heating yields more favourable simulated temperature distributions for deep-seated pelvic tumours, compared with capacitive heating. Therapeutic temperatures are predicted for capacitive heating in patients with (almost) no fat

Detection of hearing losses (HL) via transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions: towards an automatic classification

Transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) are routinely used in the hearing assessment of the auditory periphery. The major contribution of TEOAEs is the early detection of hearing losses in neonates, children, and adults. The evaluation of TEOAE responses by specific signal decomposition techniques offers numerous advantages for current and future research. One methodology, based on recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), can identify adult subjects presenting sensorineural hearing impairments. In two previous papers, the RQA-based approach was successfully applied in identifying and classifying cases presenting noise and age related hearing losses. The current work investigates further two aspects of the previously proposed RQA-based analysis for hearing loss detection: (i) the reliability of a Training set built from different numbers of ears with normal hearing, and (ii) the threshold set of values of the key hearing loss detecting parameter RAD2D.Results:The Training set built from 158 healthy ears was found to be quite reliable and a similar but slightly minor performance was observed for the training set of 118 normal subjects, used in the past; the proposed ROC-curve method, optimizing the values of RAD2D, shows improved sensibility and specificity in one class discrimination.Conclusions.A complete and simplified procedure, based on the combined use of the traditional TEOAE reproducibility value and on values from the RQA-based RAD2D parameter, is proposed as an improved automatic classifier, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, for different types of hearing losses

Tissue Mimicking Materials for Multi-Modality Breast Phantoms

The paper proposes two different Tissue Mimicking Material (TMM) techniques for the development of breast phantoms which are suitable for multi-modality imaging. In particular, the focus is on the behavior of dielectric and acoustic properties when fat, sodium chloride and sugar are added to the mixtures

Detection of age-related hearing losses (Arhl) via transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions

Purpose: The objective of the study was to identify subjects presenting hearing deficits, specifically age-related hearing losses (ARHL), via objective assessment methodologies. Materials and Methods: Initially, 259 subjects (165 men, 94 women) were enrolled in the study. After the application of inclusion criteria, the final number was reduced to 88 subjects (49.8 ± 19.1 ys) subdivided into 64 normal and 83 ARHL cases. The subjects were assessed with traditional audiometry tests and with transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs). Since each ear has its own acoustic signature, the TEOAE analyses were conducted in terms of ears and not subjects. The TEOAE data were processed by traditional and recurrence quantification analyses, leading to the estimation of the WWR (whole waveform reproducibility) and the new RAD2D (2-dimensional radius) parameters. A plot of WWR vs RAD2D was used to optimize the classification of the cases presenting ARHL. Results: By using a WWR value of 70% as a classifier, the sensitivity of TEOAEs was estimated as 75.9% and the specificity as 89.1%. By using the RAD2D parameter (with a cutoff value of 1.78), a sensitivity value of 80.7% and a specificity value of 71.9% were obtained. When both parameters were used, a sensitivity value of 85.5% and a specificity value of 92.2% were estimated. In the latter classification paradigm, the number of false negatives decreased from 20 to 12 out of 83 ears (14%). Conclusion: In adult hearing screening assessments, the proposed method optimizes the identification of subjects with a hearing impairment correlated to the presence of age-related hearing loss

Landscape scale survey of indicators of soil health in grazing systems

In a broad-scale survey across pasture-based grazing systems in south-eastern Victoria, soil biological and chemical properties were measured in an effort to establish baseline levels for commonly used indicators of soil health. Although soil properties were highly variable among sites and biological properties were difficult to predict, total soil C was found to be closely associated with soil cation exchange capacity (CEC). Importantly, the strength and nature of relationships between soil properties differed among soil textural classes. We also measured a range of soil and vegetation properties in a small number of patches of remnant vegetation and their adjacent grazed pastures. This was done in an effort to assess the sensitivity of these measures when used on samples collected from strongly contrasting land-use types. Although some factors, such as mycorrhizal colonisation of roots and soil C, did differ between the two land-use types, other factors measured in this study did not. Together, the findings of this survey provide baseline information on the landscape scale for commonly used indicators of soil health. The study explores relationships between these soil properties and assesses how they differ between two strongly contrasting land-use types. The results are discussed in the context of monitoring soil and vegetation attributes relevant to soil health.K. M. Damsma, M. T. Rose, and T. R. Cavagnar

The role of arbuscular mycorrhizas in reducing soil nutrient loss

Abstract not availableTimothy R. Cavagnaro, S. Franz Bender, Hamid R. Asghari, and Marcel G.A. van der Heijde

Arbustos de la estepa patagónica : ¿adaptados a tolerar la sequía o el pastoreo?

61-70Features that confer plants tolerance to drought also provide tolerance to herbivory. Therefore, even the plants of arid zones with a short grazing history would be tolerant to herbivory. Evolutionary history of grazing in central and northwest Patagonian steppes has been considered brief and dominant spiny shrubs have been considered adapted to tolerate drought. Here, we present experimental evidences that question that conceptual model. (1) The three most conspicuous shrubs in the dominant community at south-western Chubut (Mulinum spinosum, Adesmia volckmanni and Senecio filaginoides) are not subjected to severe water stress conditions because their roots explore deep soil layers with relatively high water potentials almost all year. That is reflected in high leaf water potential, high isotopic discrimination against heavy carbon isotope and low response to rainfall. (2) Instead, the three shrubs show evasion herbivory strategies. M. spinosum and A. volckmanni have very aggressive thorns, while S. filaginoides has a high content of carbon-based secondary metabolites. These chemical compounds are believed to have an anti-herbivory role. Besides that, in two of these three species, levels of physical or chemical defences were increased under grazing conditions. (3) Finally, as defensive strategies do not preclude herbivore consumption in absolute terms, shrubs are important components of sheep diet. Sheeps eat leaves of non-chemically defended species and flowers of all of them. These evidences suggest that grazing pressure of native herbivores would have been high and persistent enough to promote natural selection processes that conducted to dominance of grazing resistant shrub genotypes

Drought adversely affects tuber development and nutritional quality of the staple crop cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the staple food source for over 850 million people worldwide. Cassava contains cyanogenic glucosides and can be toxic to humans, causing paralysing diseases such as konzo, and even death if not properly processed. Konzo epidemics are often associated with times of drought. This may be due to a greater reliance on cassava as it is drought tolerant, but it may also be due to an increase in cyanogenic glucosides. Episodic droughts are forecast to become more common in many cassava-growing regions. We therefore sought to quantify the effect of water-stress on both yield and cyanogenic glucoside concentration (CNc) in the developing tubers of cassava. Five-month-old plants were grown in a glasshouse and either well watered or droughted for 28 days. A subset of droughted plants was re-watered half way through the experiment. Droughted plants had 45% fewer leaves and lower tuber yield, by 83%, compared with well-watered plants. CNc was 2.9-fold higher in the young leaves of droughted plants, whereas CNc in tubers from droughted plants was 4-fold greater than in tubers from well-watered plants. Re-watered plants had a similar biomass to control plants, and lower CNc than droughted plants. These findings highlight the important link between food quality and episodic drought.Rebecca Vandegeer, Rebecca E. Miller, Melissa Bain, Roslyn M. Gleadow and Timothy R. Cavagnar