Central precocious puberty in a 3 year-old girl with Phenylketonuria: a rare association?

Background Central precocious puberty (CPP) and phenylketonuria (PKU) are two rare conditions, the latter being the rarer. To date, only one case featuring both these conditions has been reported, and hyperphenylalaninemia was assumed triggering CPP. Case presentation We present a 3.2 years old girl referred with a 12 months history of breast and pubic hair development, and vaginal discharge. Hyperphenylalaninemia had been identified by newborn screening and PKU subsequently confirmed by plasma amino acid and genetic analysis. Early dietary control of plasma phenylalanine had been excellent afterwards, resulting in phenylalanine concentrations consistently within the recommended range. Clinical scenario, hormonal assessment and imaging were in keeping with true idiopathic central precocious puberty. Treatment with long lasting gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue led to regression of secondary sexual characteristics. Conclusion We describe for the first time CPP in a girl affected with PKU but with persistently well controlled blood phenylalanine concentrations. This finding is in contrast to a previous report which suggested persistently high phenylalaninemia levels as potential trigger for CPP in PKU patients. Our report, together with the lack of evidence in published cohort studies of children with PKU, strongly suggests this rare association is coincidental and independent of the presence of severe hyperphenylalaninemia.</p

Effect of Vegetative Propagation Materials on Globe Artichoke Production in Semi-Arid Developing Countries: Agronomic, Marketable and Qualitative Traits

Abstract: In Tunisia, globe artichoke is mainly propagated by underground dormant axillary buds (ovoli), which are removed from the field in August during the quiescence period. The high cost of in vitro-plants and the absence of specialized nurseries were among the reasons for the rise of heterogeneity and spread of diseases. The aim was to help farmers to improve artichoke yield and quality by ameliorating their vegetative propagation technique with low cost methods. Three plant cuttings management methods were tested: summer ovoli (T0); spring offshoots nursery\u2019s cuttings forced to pass a vegetative rest period by stopping irrigation (T1); and offshoots nursery\u2019s cuttings not forced (T2). The cuttings management can affect both yield and qualitative traits of artichoke. T1 nursery plants produced the heaviest primary heads, 7% and 23% higher than T2 and T0, respectively. T1 plants exhibited the highest yield during the harvest season, with +17.7% and +12.2% compared to T0 and T2, respectively. T0 and T1 showed the highest total antioxidant capacity and inulin content; the propagation method also affected the short-chain sugars ratio. T1 is a viable and sustainable alternative to the traditional one that does not heavily impact on growing costs and improves yield and quality of artichoke

On the characterization of flowering curves using Gaussian mixture models

In this paper, we develop a statistical methodology applied to the characterization of flowering curves using Gaussian mixture models. Our study relies on a set of rosebushes flowering data, and Gaussian mixture models are mainly used to quantify the reblooming properties of each one. In this regard, we also suggest our own selection criterion to take into account the lack of symmetry of most of the flowering curves. Three classes are created on the basis of a principal component analysis conducted on a set of reblooming indicators, and a subclassification is made using a longitudinal $k$--means algorithm which also highlights the role played by the precocity of the flowering. In this way, we obtain an overview of the correlations between the features we decided to retain on each curve. In particular, results suggest the lack of correlation between reblooming and flowering precocity. The pertinent indicators obtained in this study will be a first step towards the comprehension of the environmental and genetic control of these biological processes.Comment: 28 pages, 27 figure

Gender issue in John Rawls’ concept of equality

The project was financed by National Science Centre Poland (decision no. DEC-2012/05/B/HS5/01111)

Pocketbook Money Keys

A Poem

Those Difficult Years

Review essay of 'Letters Between and Father and Son' and 'Reading and Writing: A Personal Account' by V.S. Naipaul. The letters of the Naipaul family are compared with the fictional version of events in 'A House for Mr Biswas'

Manipulation of canopy architecture and possible vigour control mechanisms in kiwifruit : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Physiology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Full publications removed from thesis for copyright reasons: Abdullah, F., & Woolley, D.J. (2013). Effects of bark inversion on fruit weight, size and dry matter concentration of green kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. 'Hayward'). Acta Horticulturae, 1012, 213-218. The original publication is available at https://doi-org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1012.23 Abdullah, F., Woolley, D.J., van Hooijdonk, B.M., & Friend, A.P. (2015). Interspecific hybrid kiwifruit rootstocks have potential to modify scion architecture and vigour of young ‘Hayward‘ vines. Acta Horticulturae, 1096, 241-246. The original publication is available at https://doi-org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1096.26Dwarfing or vigour-controlling rootstocks have been used in many fruit trees to reduce scions growth, improve precocity and yield efficiency, but they are not currently available for kiwifruit. Therefore, there is a strong need to evaluate the vigour-controlling rootstocks and/or other growth manipulation techniques for controlling excessive growth of kiwifruit. In this study, the initial growth and architecture of ‘Hayward‘ scions may have been modified by the inter-specific hybrid kiwifruit rootstocks, during the first- and second- year of growth following grafting. Rootstocks modified the trunk cross-sectional area and proleptic bud break of the ‘Hayward‘ primary shoots. The lengths of long and short proleptic shoots of the scions from particular rootstocks were also slightly reduced, thus reducing the total length of proleptic shoots on grafted scions. In the field, inter-specific hybrid kiwifruit rootstocks affected the duration and compactness of scions bud break. The most notable effect of hybrid rootstocks was on the growth rate of long proleptic axillary shoots of scions during early spring growth with ‘Hayward‘ scions on particular rootstocks had the slowest growth rate compared to other rootstocks. Rootstocks may affect scions floral precocity, with ‘Hayward‘ scions on particular kiwifruit rootstocks tended to produce higher flower numbers when they were first planted on the field. There was a strong trend that rootstocks affected the proportion of long shoots and this effect had contributed to the differences in the proportion of non-terminated and terminated shoots of the scions. Auxin transport inhibitor, 1-N-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) applied to the stem junction at graft-union on some rootstocks had decreased the length, node number and cross-sectional area of scion primary shoots. However, NPA treatment on particular rootstocks did not affect the growth of scion primary shoots on some of the rootstocks, suggesting that restriction of IAA did not influence the level of IAA transported from shoot to root system of those kiwifruit rootstocks. NPA reduced the leaf size of scions, indicating that sufficient IAA is needed for the leaf growth of kiwifruit, but it may be regulated by the rootstocks. The transport and uptake of radioactivity of IAA in the stem segment varied between the rootstocks, suggesting that the level of IAA in the stem tissues of inter-specific hybrid kiwifruit rootstocks may vary depending on the vigour and genetics of the kiwifruit rootstocks. Restriction of IAA by inverting a single piece of bark (180-degree orientation) and grafted back to the main stem did not completely reduce the vigour of young ‘Hort16A‘ vines. However, the growth and vigour of young ‘Hort16A‘ vines in terms of total length, total node number and total leaf area were greatly reduced when grafted three rings of bark from other cultivars in an inverted orientation. In the field, the bark grafting treatments along with girdling were evaluated to regulate the characteristics of ‘Hayward‘ fruits. All treatments did not consistently produce similar effects in each season and year. Comparison between treatment, season (i.e. early and late summer) and year indicated that the treatment effects on fruit fresh weight, dry weight and dry matter concentration were only evident in the first harvesting year, and the effects were lessened in the following year. In this study, four distinct phenotypes were found from the kiwifruit seedlings population based on their main primary shoots; i) Long Multiple Stems (LMS), ii) Short Multiple Stems (SMS), iii) Long Single Stem (LS), and iv) Short Single Stem (SS). Gibberellins (GA3+GA4+7) treatment on these phenotypes at an early stage of bud break has transformed the morphology and characteristics of proleptic axillary shoots. The mean total number of proleptic and sylleptic axillary shoots (i.e. branching) was increased with gibberellins treatment, suggesting that gibberellins can promote meristematic activity by regulating both apical and sub-apical meristem of kiwifruit shoots