Antioxidant responses of lentil and barley plants to boron toxicity under different nitrogen sources

In this study, the effects of different nitrogen sources on lentil (Lens clunaris) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) plants, exposed to 5 and 10 mM boron stress previously, were studied. After ten-day germination, the lentil (native) and barley (Tokak157/37) were incubated 16 h light and 8 h dark per day for 7-day growth cycle under the conditions of boron stress via different nitrogen sources (10 mM nitrogen in NH4 Cl, KNO3 and urea). As a result of the changes in the nitrogen sources of the plants, there were determined decreases in the relative growth rate (%) and total chlorophyll content related to boron stress, (p < 0.05) and (p < 0.01), respectively. The changes in the lentil were obtained much more than those in the barley. In addition, the changes in the groups in which NH4+ was used as nitrogen source were obtained at lowest levels. The concentrations of MDA, H2O2 and proline showed increases under boron stress (p < 0.05). The effect of boron toxicity on the activities of SOD, GPX and LOX was similar in the two species but the levels of CAT and APX activities were different in both species under 5 and 10 mM boron stress (p < 0.01). SOD, GPX and LOX activities increased in the roots and shoots of boron treated plants as compared with the controls (p < 0.01). Although, lentil CAT and APX, activities decreased; in barley, CAT and APX, activities increased under boron toxicity. In conclusion, the fertilizers which contain NH4+ should be used in the boron stressed farmlands.Key words: Boron toxicity, antioxidant enzymes, nitrate, ammonium, urea, lentil, barley

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

Paclitaxel-Coated Balloon for the Treatment of Infrainguinal Disease: 12-Month Outcomes in the All-Comers Cohort of BIOLUX P-III Global Registry

Purpose: To further investigate the safety and performance of the Passeo-18 Lux drug-coated balloon (DCB) for the treatment of atherosclerotic infrainguinal disease under real-world conditions. Materials and Methods: BIOLUX P-III is an international, prospective, observational registry (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02276313) conducted at 41 centers in Europe, Asia, and Australia with follow-up visits at 6, 12, and 24 months. Of 700 patients (mean age 70.0\ub110.2 years; 439 men) with 863 lesions in the all-comers cohort, 330 (47.1%) patients had diabetes and 234 (37.7%) had chronic limb-threatening ischemia. The majority (79.3%) of lesions were in the femoropopliteal segment; of all lesions, 645 (74.9%) were calcified and 99 (11.5%) had in-stent restenosis (ISR). The mean lesion length was 84.7\ub173.3 mm. The primary clinical endpoint was major adverse events (MAEs) within 6 months, a composite of device- and procedure-related mortality through 30 days, major target limb amputation, and clinically-driven target lesion revascularization (TLR). The primary performance endpoint was clinically-driven TLR within 12 months. Results: At 6 and 12 months, freedom from MAEs was 94.0% and 89.5% in the all-comers cohort: 95.0% and 91.2% in the femoropopliteal group and 95.3% and 88.0% in the ISR subgroup, respectively. Freedom from clinically-driven TLR at 12 months was 93.1% in the all-comers cohort, 93.9% in the femoropopliteal lesions, and 89.4% for ISR lesions. All-cause mortality was 6.1% in the all-comers cohort: 5.9% in both the femoropopliteal and ISR subgroups. There were no device- or procedure-related deaths at up to 12 months. The Rutherford category improved in >80% of all subgroups at 12 months. Conclusion: In a real-world patient population, the safety and performance of the Passeo-18 Lux DCB for the treatment of atherosclerotic infrainguinal lesions are maintained, with good performance outcomes and low complication rates at 12 months

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

Morphological Trait Evolution in Solanum (Solanaceae): Evolutionary Lability of Key Taxonomic Characters

Solanum is one of the world\u27s largest and economically most important plant genera, including 1245 currently accepted species and several major and minor crops (e.g., tomato, potato, brinjal eggplant, scarlet eggplant, Gboma eggplant, lulo, and pepino). Here we provide an overview of the evolution of 25 key morphological traits for the major and minor clades of this giant genus based on stochastic mapping using a well-sampled recently published phylogeny of Solanum. The most evolutionarily labile traits (showing \u3e100 transitions across the genus) relate to plant structure (growth form and sympodial unit structure), herbivore defence (glandular trichomes), pollination (corolla shape and colour), and dispersal (fruit colour). Ten further traits show evolutionary lability with 50–100 transitions across the genus (e.g., specialised underground organs, trichome structure, leaf type, inflorescence position and branching, stamen heteromorphism). Our results reveal a number of highly convergent traits in Solanum, including tubers, rhizomes, simple leaves, yellow corollas, heteromorphic anthers, dioecy, and dry fruits, and some unexpected pathways of trait evolution that could be explored in future studies. We show that informally named clades of Solanum can be morphologically defined by trait combinations providing a tool for identification and enabling predictive phylogenetic placement of unsampled species

Influence of confinement on the orientational phase transitions in the lamellar phase of a block copolymer melt under shear flow

In this work we incorporate some real-system effects into the theory of orientational phase transitions under shear flow (M. E. Cates and S. T. Milner, Phys. Rev. Lett. v.62, p.1856 (1989) and G. H. Fredrickson, J. Rheol. v.38, p.1045 (1994)). In particular, we study the influence of the shear-cell boundaries on the orientation of the lamellar phase. We predict that at low shear rates the parallel orientation appears to be stable. We show that there is a critical value of the shear rate at which the parallel orientation loses its stability and the perpendicular one appears immediately below the spinodal. We associate this transition with a crossover from the fluctuation to the mean-field behaviour. At lower temperatures the stability of the parallel orientation is restored. We find that the region of stability of the perpendicular orientation rapidly decreases as shear rate increases. This behaviour might be misinterpreted as an additional perpendicular to parallel transition recently discussed in literature.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Real-world experience with a Paclitaxel-Coated Balloon for the treatment of atherosclerotic infrainguinal arteries: 12-month interim results of the BIOLUX P-III registry first year of enrolment = Experiência real com balão revestido com paclitaxel para o tratamento de artérias infrainguinais ateroscleróticas: resultados após 12 meses do primeiro ano de seleção de pacientes para o registro BIOLUX P-III

Background: Endovascular management of atherosclerotic infrainguinal arteries recently shifted towards drug eluting devices, designed to locally prevent the restenosis process. Numerous clinical studies report an advantage of drug coated balloons over uncoated balloon angioplasty in treating lower extremity peripheral artery disease. However, as coating and balloon platforms are different, each device requires dedicated clinical evaluations. Objective: The aim of the study is to further investigate the safety and effectiveness of a Paclitaxel-Coated Balloon for the treatment of atherosclerotic infrainguinal arteries in a real-world setting. Methods: 203 patients out of a final sample of 882 were enrolled in this prospective multicenter, observational, all-comers registry during the first 12 months. The primary endpoints were major adverse events (defined as procedure or device related death within 30 days post index procedure, clinically-driven target lesion revascularization or major target limb amputation) at 6 months and freedom from clinically-driven target lesion revascularization at 12 months. Both endpoints were adjudicated by a Clinical Events Committee. Results: Mean patient age was 70.2\ub110.4 years (60.1% male). 47.3% of the patients were diabetic and 67.5% had a history of smoking. Severe claudication was reported in 37.4% and 40% had critical limb ischemia. 257 lesions, including 13.2% in the infrapopliteal territory, were treated with Passeo-18 Lux (mean lesion length 75.1 mm\ub169.4, 20% occlusions, 76.3% calcified). At 6 months, the rate of major adverse events was 5.5% (95%CI 3.1-9.7). Freedom from clinically-driven target lesion revascularization at 12 months was 93.2% (95%CI 89.1-95.8). All causes mortality was 6.5% (95%CI 3.8-11.0) and overall amputation rate was 4.2% (95%CI 2.1-8.3) at 12 months. Conclusion: In a real-world environment, the BIOLUX P-III registry preliminary results confirm the safety and efficacy of the Paclitaxel-Coated Passeo-18 Lux balloon as a stand-alone treatment option for atherosclerotic infrainguinal arteries.Contexto: O manejo endovascular de art\ue9rias infrainguinais ateroscler\uf3ticas recentemente tem mudado para dispositivos farmacol\uf3gicos, desenhados para impedir localmente o processo de reestenose. Numerosos estudos cl\uednicos descrevem uma vantagem da angioplastia com uso de bal\uf5es farmacol\uf3gicos sobre os bal\uf5es convencionais no tratamento de doen\ue7a arterial perif\ue9rica dos membros inferiores. No entanto, considerando que as plataformas do revestimento farmacol\uf3gico e dos bal\uf5es s\ue3o diferentes, cada dispositivo requer avalia\ue7\uf5es cl\uednicas espec\uedficas. Objetivo: Fazer investiga\ue7\ue3o adicional sobre a seguran\ue7a e efic\ue1cia de um bal\ue3o revestido com paclitaxel para o tratamento de art\ue9rias infrainguinais ateroscler\uf3ticas em um cen\ue1rio de mundo real. M\ue9todos: 203 pacientes de uma amostra final de 882 pacientes foram inclu\ueddos neste registro prospectivo observacional multic\ueantrico de inclus\ue3o sequencial, durante os primeiros 12 meses. Os desfechos prim\ue1rios foram eventos adversos maiores (definidos como morte relacionada ao procedimento ou ao dispositivo em at\ue9 30 dias ap\uf3s o procedimento-\uedndice, necessidade de revasculariza\ue7\ue3o da les\ue3o-alvo ou amputa\ue7\ue3o significativa do membro-alvo) em 6 meses e aus\ueancia de de revasculariza\ue7\ue3o da les\ue3o-alvo em 12 meses. Ambos os desfechos foram adjudicados por um comit\uea de eventos cl\uednicos. Resultados: A idade m\ue9dia foi 70,2\ub110,4 anos (60,1% sexo masculino). 47,3% dos pacientes eram diab\ue9ticos, e 67,5% tinham hist\uf3ria de tabagismo. Claudica\ue7\ue3o severa foi relatada em 37,4%, e 40% apresentava isquemia cr\uedtica de membro. 257 les\uf5es, incluindo 13,2% em territ\uf3rio infrapopl\uedteo, foram tratadas com o bal\ue3o Passeo-18 Lux (comprimento m\ue9dio das les\uf5es 75,1 mm\ub169,4, 20% oclus\uf5es, 76,3% calcificadas). Aos 6 meses, a taxa de eventos adversos maiores foi de 5,5% (95%CI 3,1-9,7). A aus\ueancia de revasculariza\ue7\ue3o da les\ue3o-alvo aos 12 meses foi de 93,2% (95%CI 89,1-95,8). Mortalidade por todas as causas foi de 6,5% (95%CI 3,8-11,0) e a taxa geral de amputa\ue7\ue3o foi de 4,2% (95%CI 2,1-8,3) aos 12 meses. Conclus\ue3o: Em um cen\ue1rio de mundo real, os resultados preliminares do registro BIOLUX P-III confirmam a seguran\ue7a e efic\ue1cia do bal\ue3o revestido com paclitaxel Passeo-18 Lux como op\ue7\ue3o de tratamento \ufanico para art\ue9rias infrainguinais ateroscler\uf3ticas

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

Limits on the high-energy gamma and neutrino fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 giant flare of December 27th, 2004 with the AMANDA-II detector

On December 27th 2004, a giant gamma flare from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater 1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors. This event was by more than two orders of magnitude the brightest cosmic transient ever observed. If the gamma emission extends up to TeV energies with a hard power law energy spectrum, photo-produced muons could be observed in surface and underground arrays. Moreover, high-energy neutrinos could have been produced during the SGR giant flare if there were substantial baryonic outflow from the magnetar. These high-energy neutrinos would have also produced muons in an underground array. AMANDA-II was used to search for downgoing muons indicative of high-energy gammas and/or neutrinos. The data revealed no significant signal. The upper limit on the gamma flux at 90% CL is dN/dE < 0.05 (0.5) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2). Similarly, we set limits on the normalization constant of the high-energy neutrino emission of 0.4 (6.1) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure