• Open Access close
• Publications close
• Research software close

Abstract Background In the present study, different concentrations of lead (factor A; 0, 15, and 30 mg L −1) and cadmium (factor B; 0 and 5 mg L −1) were applied via irrigation water during 6 months to evaluate their effects on growth of European hackberry (Celtis australis L.) plants. The experiment was arranged in factorial with completely randomized design and four replications under greenhouse conditions. Results Application of 5 mg L −1 Cd or the lead levels (15 and 30 mg L −1) significantly reduced new shoot growth, plant leaf area, SPAD value, leaf water conductance and leaf photosynthesis, whereas significant increase in number of chlorotic and necrotic leaves, leaf transpiration rate, leaf proline and soluble sugars was observed. Higher reduction in new shoot growth and leaf water conductance and higher increase in leaf soluble sugars and proline was observed over the interaction of 5 mg L −1 Cd and 30 mg L −1 Pb. The highest soluble sugars and proline were in Pb30Cd5 (a3b2) treatment. Leaf Pb or Cd concentration was increased following their treatment. Application of cadmium significantly reduced leaf Pb, and similarly leaf Cd was significantly reduced by application of lead at both levels compared to untreated plants. Conclusion The results showed that the hackberry growth was influenced by positive and negative interactions of Pb and Cd applied in irrigation water. The extent of growth reduction indicates that hackberry represents a relatively tolerant ornamental tree to high Pb and Cd levels.

During neuronal development, axons navigate the cortical environment to reach their final destinations and establish synaptic connections. Growth cones -the sensory structures located at the distal tips of developing axons- execute this process. Studying the structure and dynamics of the growth cone is crucial to understanding axonal development and the interactions with the surrounding central nervous system (CNS) that enable it to form neural circuits. This is essential when devising methods to reintegrate axons into neural circuits following injury in fundamental research and pre-clinical contexts. Thus far, the general understanding of growth cone dynamics is primarily founded on studies of neurons cultured in two dimensions (2D). Although undoubtedly fundamental to the current knowledge of growth cone structural dynamics and response to stimuli, 2D studies misrepresent the physiological three-dimensional (3D) environment encountered by neuronal growth cones in intact CNS tissue. More recently, collagen gels were employed to overcome some of these limitations, enabling the investigation of neuronal development in 3D. However, both synthetic 2D and 3D environments lack signaling cues within CNS tissue, which direct the extension and pathfinding of developing axons. This protocol provides a method for studying axons and growth cones using organotypic brain slices, where developing axons encounter physiologically relevant physical and chemical cues. By combining fine-tuned in utero and ex utero electroporation to sparsely deliver fluorescent reporters along with super-resolution microscopy, this protocol presents a methodological pipeline for the visualization of axon and growth cone dynamics in situ. Furthermore, a detailed toolkit description of the analysis of long-term and live-cell imaging data is included.

KLF4 plays a critical role in determining cell fate responding to various stresses or oncogenic signaling. Here, we demonstrated that KLF4 is tightly regulated by poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation). We revealed the subcellular compartmentation for KLF4 is orchestrated by PARP1-mediated PARylation. We identified that PARylation of KLF4 is critical to govern KLF4 transcriptional activity through recruiting KLF4 from soluble nucleus to the chromatin. We mapped molecular motifs on KLF4 and PARP1 that facilitate their interaction and unveiled the pivotal role of the PBZ domain YYR motif (Y430, Y451 and R452) on KLF4 in enabling PARP1-mediated PARylation of KLF4. Disruption of KLF4 PARylation results in failure in DNA damage response. Depletion of KLF4 by RNA interference or interference with PARP1 function by KLF4

Introduction/Background Sentinel node in endometrial cancer (EC) is an evolving technique to know the nodal status in a more precise way without the need to perform a complete lymphadenecotomy. The aim of this study was to describe our latest results using dual cervical and fundal indocyanine green (ICG) injection for detection of sentinel lymph node (SLN) in endometrial cancer and results of SLN biopsy. Methodology This is an observational prospective study performed between 26 June 2014 and 31 December 2019, 278 patients underwent laparoscopic surgery for endometrial cancer at Hospital Uniersitario Donostia, in Spain. In all cases, we performed SLN biopsy with dual cervical and fundal ICG injection, looking for pelvic and aortic sentinel node. All SLNs were processed with an ultrastaging technique. A total of 128 patients with Intermediate and High risk EC also underwent total pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy. Results The detection rates were as follows: 93.52% (260/278) overall for SLNs; 90.65% (252/278) overall for pelvic SLNs; 67.99% (189/278) for bilateral SLNs; 66.91% (186/278) for paraaortic SLNs, and 2.88% (8/278) for isolated paraaortic SLNs. We found macroscopic lymph node metastasis in 26 patients (10.03%) and microdisease in lymph nodes in another 48 patients, raising the overall rate of lymph node involvement to 16.19%. There was one false negative (negative SLN biopsy but positive lymphadenectomy). 6.6% of all pelvic and also aortic sentinel nodes were positive for metastasis. Applying the SN algorithm, the sensitivity of detection was 97.9% (95% CI 89.1–99.6), specificity 100% (95% CI 98.2–100), negative predictive value 99.5% (95% CI 97.4–99.9), and positive predictive value 100% (95% CI 92.4–100). Conclusion Dual sentinel node injection is a feasible technique that achieves adequate detection rates. Additionally, this technique allows a high rate of aortic detection, identifying a non-negligible percentage of isolated aortic metastases. Aortic metastases in endometrial cancer are possible and it is necessary to investigate the relevance of its detection. Disclosures No disclosures.

A 55-year-old male patient was referred with a 1-month history of dyspnoea NYHA III and chest pain, 10 years after aortic replacement due to acute type A dissection. Angiography displayed an abnormal configuration of the supracoronary graft ( Panel A , arrow), and invasive blood pressure monitoring revealed a peak-to-peak gradient of 180 mmHg confirming …

With an increased interest in applications that require a clean background image, such as video surveillance, object tracking, street view imaging and location-based services on web-based maps, multiple algorithms have been developed to reconstruct a background image from cluttered scenes. Traditionally, statistical measures and existing image quality techniques have been applied for evaluating the quality of the reconstructed background images. Though these quality assessment methods have been widely used in the past, their performance in evaluating the perceived quality of the reconstructed background image has not been verified. In this work, we discuss the shortcomings in existing metrics and propose a full reference Reconstructed Background image Quality Index (RBQI) that combines color and structural information at multiple scales using a probability summation model to predict the perceived quality in the reconstructed background image given a reference image. To compare the performance of the proposed quality index with existing image quality assessment measures, we construct two different datasets consisting of reconstructed background images and corresponding subjective scores. The quality assessment measures are evaluated by correlating their objective scores with human subjective ratings. The correlation results show that the proposed RBQI outperforms all the existing approaches. Additionally, the constructed datasets and the corresponding subjective scores provide a benchmark to evaluate the performance of future metrics that are developed to evaluate the perceived quality of reconstructed background images.