Hull-less Barley Varieties: Storage Proteins and Amino Acid Distribution in Relation to Nutritional Quality

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has had an important impact on human nutrition. Hull-less barley is a genetically improved type that has been widely used in recent years. Six Brazilian hull-less barley varieties (IAC-IBON 214-82; IAC 8612-421; IAC 8501-31; IAC 8501-12; IAPAR 39-ACUMAI; IAC 8501-22) were analyzed for storage protein constituents, amino acid contents, and similarity among the hull-less barley varieties. Albumins, globulins, prolamins I and II, and glutelins were extracted and separated by SDS-PAGE. The total protein amino acid contents of the flour were also determined for each variety by TLC and HPLC. Variations in intensity and appearance and disappearance of protein bands were observed among the varieties suggesting genetic variability. However, the amino acid profile did not indicate any major variations in the amino acid concentrations. The high lysine and threonine total concentrations detected in the seeds of the hull-less barley varieties encouraged an investigation into the regulation of amino acid metabolism and storage protein synthesis.     

The role of hydrodynamic stress on the phenotypic characteristics of single and binary biofilms of Pseudomonas fluorescens.

This study investigates the phenotype of turbulent (Re = 5,200) and laminar (Re = 2,000) flow-generated Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms. Three P. fluorescens strains, the type strain ATCC 13525 and two strains isolated from an industrial processing plant, D3-348 and D3-350, were used throughout this study. The isolated strains were used to form single and binary biofilms. The biofilm physiology (metabolic activity, cellular density, mass, extracellular polymeric substances, structural characteristics and outer membrane proteins [OMP] expression) was compared. The results indicate that, for every situation, turbulent flow-generated biofilms were more active (p < 0.05), had more mass per cm(2) (p < 0.05), a higher cellular density (p < 0.05), distinct morphology, similar matrix proteins (p > 0.1) and identical (isolated strains -single and binary biofilms) and higher (type strain) matrix polysaccharides contents (p < 0.05) than laminar flow-generated biofilms. Flow-generated biofilms formed by the type strain revealed a considerably higher cellular density and amount of matrix polysaccharides than single and binary biofilms formed by the isolated strains (p < 0.05). Similar OMP expression was detected for the several single strains and for the binary situation, not dependent on the hydrodynamic conditions. Binary biofilms revealed an equal coexistence of the isolated strains with apparent neutral interactions. In summary, the biofilms formed by the type strain represent, apparently, the worst situation in a context of control. The results obtained clearly illustrate the importance of considering strain variation and hydrodynamics in biofilm development, and complement previous studies which have focused on physical aspects of structural and density differences.     

Isolation of single yeast cells by optical trapping

Individual yeast cells can be successfully isolated and recultured on plates with a new isolation method making use of optical trapping with infrared laser light. The cells can be selected on morphological criteria by high resolution microscopy. The isolation device is constructed from two coverslips separated by spacers, in which selected cells are transferred to a plastic capillary, using the optical trap. To test the procedure, selection experiments were done with a mixture of two Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, distinguishable both in fluorescence microscopy and on agar plates. These experiments showed that only selected cells were isolated, and close to 100% of the isolated stationary-phase cells formed colonies on agar plates, indicating a high recovery. A lower recovery was obtained with exponential-phase cells, possibly because of a higher sensitivity to laser irradiation. Applications for this method may include the isolation of mutants with altered morphology and the isolation of subpopulations of yeast cultures, for their separate investigation or for the initiation of pure cultures.     

A New Distribution System Reconfiguration Approach Using Optimum Power Flow and Sensitivity Analysis for Loss Reduction

This paper presents a new approach for distribution system reconfiguration (DSR) based on optimum power flow (OPF) in which the branch statuses (open/close) are represented by continuous functions. In the proposed approach, all branches are initially considered closed, and from the OPF results, a heuristic technique is used to determine the next loop to be broken by opening one switch. Then the list of switches that are candidates to be opened is updated, and the above process is repeated until all loops are broken, making the distribution system radial. This paper includes results and comparisons on test systems utilized in three classical papers published in the technical literature, as well as in a previous paper by the authors. Results obtained on a real large-scale distribution system are also presented     

A Comparative Study of High-Field Diamagnetic Fluctuations in Deoxygenated YBa2Cu3O7-x and Polycrystalline (Bi–Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10

We studied three single crystals of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x, (Y123) with superconducting transition temperature, T_c=62.5, 52, and 41 K, and a highly textured polycrystalline specimen of (Bi–Pb)₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O₁₀ (Bi2223), with T_c=108K. Isofield magnetization data were obtained as a function of temperature, with the magnetic field applied parallel to the c axis of each sample. The reversible magnetization data for all samples exhibited a rounded transition as magnetization tended toward zero. The reversible data were interpreted in terms of two-dimensional diamagnetic lowest-Landau-level (LLL) fluctuation theory. The LLL scaling analysis yielded consistent values of the superconducting transition temperatures T_c(H) for the various samples. The resulting scaling data were fit well by the two-dimensional LLL expression for magnetization obtained by Tesanovic and colaborators, producing reasonable values of κ but the fitting parameter ∂H_c2/∂T produced values that were larger than the experimentally determined ones. We performed simultaneous scaling of Y123 data and Bi2223, obtaining a single collapsed curve. The single curve was obtained after multiplying the x and y axis of each scaling curve by appropriate sample-dependent scaling factors. An expression for the two-dimensional x-axis LLL scaling was extracted from theory, allowing comparison of theoretical values of the x-axis scaling factors with the experimental values. The comparison between the values of the x-axis produced a deviation of 40% which suggests that the hypothesis of universality of the two-dimensional LLL fluctuations is not supported by the studied samples. We also observe that Y123 magnetization data for temperatures above T_c obbey a universal scaling obtained for the diamagnetic fluctuation magnetization from a theory considering non-local field effects. The same scaling was not obbeyed by the corresponding magnetization calculated from the two-dimensional LLL theory.     

Near-Complete Remission of Glioblastoma in a Patient Treated with an Allogenic Dendritic Cell-Based Vaccine: The Role of Tumor-Specific CD4+T-Cell Cytokine Secretion Pattern in Predicting Response and Recurrence

Immunotherapy has brought hope to the fight against glioblastoma, but its efficacy remains unclear. We present the case of CST, a 25-year-old female patient with a large right-hemisphere glioblastoma treated with a dendritic–tumor cell fusion vaccine. CST showed a near-complete tumor response, with a marked improvement in her functional status and simultaneous increases in tumor-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells. Two months before recurrence, the frequency of tumor-specific T cells decreased, while that of IL-17 and CD4+ T cells increased. CST passed away 15 months after enrollment. In this illustrative case, the tumor-specific CD4+ T-cell numbers and phenotype behaved as treatment efficacy biomarkers, highlighting the key role of the latter in glioblastoma immunotherapy.     

Ferroptosis Modulation: Potential Therapeutic Target for Glioblastoma Treatment

Glioblastoma multiforme is a lethal disease and represents the most common and severe type of glioma. Drug resistance and the evasion of cell death are the main characteristics of its malignancy, leading to a high percentage of disease recurrence and the patients’ low survival rate. Exploiting the modulation of cell death mechanisms could be an important strategy to prevent tumor development and reverse the high mortality and morbidity rates in glioblastoma patients. Ferroptosis is a recently described type of cell death, which is characterized by iron accumulation, high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-containing phospholipids, and deficiency in lipid peroxidation repair. Several studies have demonstrated that ferroptosis has a potential role in cancer treatment and could be a promising approach for glioblastoma patients. Thus, here, we present an overview of the mechanisms of the iron-dependent cell death and summarize the current findings of ferroptosis modulation on glioblastoma including its non-canonical pathway. Moreover, we focused on new ferroptosis-inducing compounds for glioma treatment, and we highlight the key ferroptosis-related genes to glioma prognosis, which could be further explored. Thereby, understanding how to trigger ferroptosis in glioblastoma may provide promising pharmacological targets and indicate new therapeutic approaches to increase the survival of glioblastoma patients.     

Analysis of Frequency Selective Surfaces at Millimeter Wave Band Using the Hertz Vector Potential Method

In this work, the Hertz vector potential method was used to obtain the dyadic Green’s function components for frequency selective surfaces (FSS) on an anisotropic layer. The considered structures are composed by periodic arrays of conducting crossed dipole and rectangular patch elements. Results of reflected power were obtained by using the moment method. Curves for the reflected power versus frequency are presented as function of the structural parameters, assuming x, y, and z orientation for the optical axis in the anisotropic substrate.     

Use of Different Acknowledgement Policies for Burst Transmission in Fiber-fed Wireless LANs

The IEEE 802.11 e medium access control (MAC) for quality-of-service (QoS) support in 802.11 networks defines burst transmission and new acknowledgment (ACK) operations as optional mechanisms for increasing channel utilization. In this paper, we investigate how the performance of these new features is affected by the presence of fiber delay in high speed Wireless LAN (WLAN) over fiber networks. It is shown that the negative effect of the fiber delay on the throughput performance of the 802.11 MAC protocol can be significantly reduced when burst transmission is used with the block or the no ACK policies.