Flemingburgess9990

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of growing basil under three soilless systems (aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slab systems). A model was developed to predict the nutrients consumption by basil plants. Shoot and root height, fresh and dry mass of whole plant, nutrients uptake, and oil content were studied during the growth period (after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting). The results indicated that the shoot lengths of basil plants were 71.67 ± 2.89, 65.67 ± 1.15 and 62.33 ± 2.31 cm at the end of growth period for aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slabs, respectively. click here The highest value of root height of basil plants was 37.67 ± 6.66 cm for aeroponic system. The dry mass of shoot of basil plants ranged from 28.48 ± 0.91 to 44.77 ± 0.97 and 72.98 ± 0.83 to 117.93 ± 1.40 g plant-1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively. The highest values of the N, P, K, Ca and Mg uptakes were 753.99 ± 5.65, 224.88 ± 3.05, 449.75 ± 4.59, 529.12 ± 6.63 and 112.44 ± 1.67 mg plant-1 at the end of experimental period, respectively. The basil oil content ranged from 1.129 (1.11%) to 2.520 (1.80%) and 2.664 (1.42%) to 6.318 (1.44%) g plant-1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively at the same pervious order. The production costs of basil plant were 2.93, 5.27 and 6.24 EGP kg-1 of plant. The model results were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental ones.Diabetes mellitus (DM) has profound effects on the female mammalian reproductive system, and early embryonic development, reducing female reproductive outcomes and inducing developmental programming in utero. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain poorly defined. Accumulating evidence implicates endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress with maternal DM associated pathophysiology. Yet the direct pathologies and causal events leading to ovarian dysfunction and altered early embryonic development have not been determined. Here, using an in vivo mouse model of Type 1 DM and in vitro hyperglycaemia-exposure, we demonstrate the activation of ER-stress within adult ovarian tissue and pre-implantation embryos. In diabetic ovaries, we show that the unfolded protein response (UPR) triggers an apoptotic cascade by the co-activation of Caspase 12 and Cleaved Caspase 3 transducers. Whereas DM-exposed early embryos display differential ER-associated responses; by activating Chop in within embryonic precursors and Caspase 12 within placental precursors. Our results offer new insights for understanding the pathological effects of DM on mammalian ovarian function and early embryo development, providing new evidence of its mechanistic link with ER-stress in mice.Diatoms possess an efficient mechanism to dissipate photons as heat in conditions of excess light, which is visualized as the Non-Photochemical Quenching of chlorophyll a fluorescence (NPQ). In most diatom species, NPQ is proportional to the concentration of the xanthophyll cycle pigment diatoxanthin formed from diadinoxanthin by the diadinoxanthin de-epoxidase enzyme. The reverse reaction is performed by the diatoxanthin epoxidase. Despite the xanthophyll cycle's central role in photoprotection, its regulation is not yet well understood. The proportionality between diatoxanthin and NPQ allowed us to calculate the activity of both xanthophyll cycle enzymes in the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum from NPQ kinetics. From there, we explored the light-dependency of the activity of both enzymes. Our results demonstrate that a tight regulation of both enzymes is key to fine-tune NPQ (i) the rate constant of diadinoxanthin de-epoxidation is low under a light-limiting regime but increases as photosynthesis saturates, probably due to the thylakoidal proton gradient ΔpH (ii) the rate constant of diatoxanthin epoxidation exhibits an optimum under low light and decreases in the dark due to an insufficiency of the co-factor NADPH as well as in higher light through an as yet unresolved inhibition mechanism, that is unlikely to be related to the ΔpH. We observed that the suppression of NPQ by an uncoupler was due to an accelerated diatoxanthin epoxidation enzyme rather than to the usually hypothesized inhibition of the diadinoxanthin de-epoxidation enzyme.Environmental stress like important soccer events can induce excitation, stress and anger. We aimed to investigate (i) whether the FIFA soccer world cup (WC) 2014 and (ii) whether the soccer games of the German national team had an impact on total numbers and in-hospital mortality of patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in Germany. We analyzed data of MI inpatients of the German nationwide inpatient sample (2013-2015). Patients admitted due to MI during FIFA WC 2014 (12th June-13th July2014) were compared to those during the same period 2013 and 2015 (12th June-13th July). Total number of MI patients was higher during WC 2014 than in the comparison-period 2013 (18,479 vs.18,089, P  less then  0.001) and 2015 (18,479 vs.17,794, P  less then  0.001). WC was independently associated with higher MI numbers (2014 vs. 2013 OR 1.04 [95% CI 1.01-1.07]; 2014 vs. 2015 OR 1.07 [95% CI 1.04-1.10], P  less then  0.001). Patient characteristics and in-hospital mortality rate (8.3% vs. 8.3% vs. 8.4%) were similar during periods. In-hospital mortality rate was not affected by games of the German national team (8.9% vs. 8.1%, P = 0.110). However, we observed an increase regarding in-hospital mortality from 7.9 to 9.3% before to 12.0% at final-match-day. Number of hospital admissions due to MI in Germany was 3.7% higher during WC 2014 than during the same 31-day period 2015. While in-hospital mortality was not affected by the WC, the in-hospital mortality was highest at WC final.Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health burden around the world. The gut microbiome may contribute to CKD progression and serve as a promising therapeutic target. Colonic dialysis has long been used in China to help remove gut-derived toxins to delay CKD progression. Since disturbances in the gut biome may influence disease progression, we wondered whether colonic dialysis may mitigate the condition by influencing the biome. We compared the gut microbiota, based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, in fecal samples of 25 patients with CKD (stages 3-5) who were receiving colonic dialysis(group CD), 25 outpatients with CKD not receiving colonic dialysis(group OP), and 34 healthy subjects(group HS). Richness of gut microbiota was similar between patients on colonic dialysis and healthy subjects, and richness in these two groups was significantly higher than that in patients not on colonic dialysis. Colonic dialysis also altered the profile of microbes in the gut of CKD patients, bringing it closer to the profile in healthy subjects.