Stem Photosynthesis—A Key Element of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Acclimatisation to Salinity

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is a leguminous plant of outstanding tolerance to abiotic stress. The aim of the presented study was to describe the mechanism of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) photosynthetic apparatus acclimatisation strategies to salinity stress. The seedlings were cultivated in a hydroponic system in media containing various concentrations of NaCl (0, 50, and 100 mM), imitating none, moderate, and severe salinity, respectively, for three weeks. In order to characterise the function and structure of the photosynthetic apparatus, Chl a fluorescence, gas exchange measurements, proteome analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis were done inter alia. Significant differences in the response of the leaf and stem photosynthetic apparatus to severe salt stress were observed. Leaves became the place of harmful ion (Na⁺) accumulation, and the efficiency of their carboxylation decreased sharply. In turn, in stems, the reconstruction of the photosynthetic apparatus (antenna and photosystem complexes) activated alternative electron transport pathways, leading to effective ATP synthesis, which is required for the efficient translocation of Na⁺ to leaves. These changes enabled efficient stem carboxylation and made them the main source of assimilates. The observed changes indicate the high plasticity of grass pea photosynthetic apparatus, providing an effective mechanism of tolerance to salinity stress.     

A New Triazole-Thiol Compound Organofunctionalized on the Silica Gel Surface: Chemical Properties and Copper Sorption in Ethanol / Water Media

Silicon - This study describes the preparation and characterization of 3-chloropropyl silica gel with 4-amino-5-(4pyridyl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol (SGA) for copper adsorption in different media....     

Small Noncoding RNAs in Knee Osteoarthritis: The Role of MicroRNAs and tRNA-Derived Fragments

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative knee joint disease that results from the breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone, affecting about 3.3% of the world’s population. As OA is a multifactorial disease, the underlying pathological process is closely associated with genetic changes in articular cartilage and bone. Many studies have focused on the role of small noncoding RNAs in OA and identified numbers of microRNAs that play important roles in regulating bone and cartilage homeostasis. The connection between other types of small noncoding RNAs, especially tRNA-derived fragments and knee osteoarthritis is still elusive. The observation that there is limited information about small RNAs different than miRNAs in knee OA was very surprising to us, especially given the fact that tRNA fragments are known to participate in a plethora of human diseases and a portion of them are even more abundant than miRNAs. Inspired by these findings, in this review we have summarized the possible involvement of microRNAs and tRNA-derived fragments in the pathology of knee osteoarthritis.     

Konferenz der Datenschutzbeauftragten des Bundes und der Länder

Dokumentation

Konferenz der Datenschutzbeauftragten des Bundes und der L?nder Entschlie?ung vom 16. April 2009     

A first or dominant immunization. I. Suppression of simultaneous cytolytic T cell responses to unrelated alloantigens

A first or dominant immunization with one antigen markedly inhibited specific cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to a second unrelated alloantigen without suppressing antibody responses to other antigens. Suppression was induced rapidly, became systemic, and could be transferred passively with only serum. Suppression did not result from elimination of cells capable of responding to the second antigen. The mechanisms responsible for this "priority of the first response" may be the same that help protect the fetus during pregnancy, promote renal allograft survival after multiple blood transfusions, and prevent effective CTL-mediated immunity to variants of tumor cells or infectious agents that arise during tumor progression or chronic infections.     

Multifractal characterization of unworn hydrogel contact lens surfaces

Purpose: The aim of this work was to estimate the multifractal spectra of 3D surface roughness for unworn hydrogel contact lenses (CL), obtained with atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. Materials and methods: Contact lenses made from vifilcon A (Focus® Monthly Toric Visitint® model, CIBA Vision Corp.) were investigated. CL surface roughness was studied by AFM in tapping‐mode™, in an aqueous environment, on square areas ranging from 1 to 4 μm². A detailed methodology for CL surface multifractal characterization, which may be applied for AFM data, was presented. Results: The CL surface roughness revealed multifractal geometry at various magnifications. The generalized dimension D_q and the singularity spectrum f(α) provided quantitative values that characterize the local scale properties of CL surface geometry at nanometer scale. Conclusions: Multifractal analysis provides different yet complementary information to that offered by traditional surface statistical parameters. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:1066–1080, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Optimization of osmotic dehydration of yacon slices

Osmotic dehydration assisted by ultrasound (ODAU) at low temperatures reduces water activity (a_w) and maintains nutrients. The influence of solution concentration (SC; 20 to 60° Brix, xylitol and sorbitol) and ultrasound application time (t_us, 0 to 40 min) in ODAU of yacon was studied with the aid of a response surface method. The optimum condition with respect to mass transfer parameters, a_w, and fructan retention was SC of 60° Brix for both solutions and t_us of 2.67 min for xylitol samples and 0 min for sorbitol samples. The application of ultrasound improved dehydration but resulted in depolymerization of fructans.     

Further considerations on the high-cycle fatigue of micron-scale polycrystalline silicon

Bulk silicon is not susceptible to high-cycle fatigue but micron-scale silicon films are. Using polysilicon resonators to determine stress-lifetime fatigue behavior in several environments, oxide layers are found to show up to four-fold thickening after cycling, which is not seen after monotonic loading or after cycling in vacuo. We believe that the mechanism of thin-film silicon fatigue is “reaction-layer fatigue”, involving cyclic stress-induced thickening of the oxide and moisture-assisted cracking within this layer.     

Optimal recovery schemes in fault tolerant distributed computing

Clusters and distributed systems offer fault tolerance and high performance through load sharing. When all n computers are up and running, we would like the load to be evenly distributed among the computers. When one or more computers break down, the load on these computers must be redistributed to other computers in the system. The redistribution is determined by the recovery scheme. The recovery scheme is governed by a sequence of integers modulo n. Each sequence guarantees minimal load on the computer that has maximal load even when the most unfavorable combinations of computers go down. We calculate the best possible such recovery schemes for any number of crashed computers by an exhaustive search, where brute force testing is avoided by a mathematical reformulation of the problem and a branch-and-bound algorithm. The search nevertheless has a high complexity. Optimal sequences, and thus a corresponding optimal bound, are presented for a maximum of twenty one computers in the distributed system or cluster.Received: 26 May 2004, Published online: 14 March 2005