Iron supplementation moderates but does not cure the Belgrade anemia

Belgrade rats inherit microcytic, hypochromic anemia as an autosomalrecessive trait (gene symbol b). Erythrocytes and tissue are iron deficientin the face of elevated TIBC (total iron binding capacity) and percent ironsaturation; iron injections increased the number of erythrocytes but theirappearance remained abnormal. We have investigated iron supplements toimprove husbandry of b/b rats and to learn more about the underlying defectand its tissue distribution. Weekly IM (intramuscular) injections ofiron–dextran (Imferon at 30 mg kg) improved the anemia but did not alter thered cell morphology. Certain diets also improved the health of b/b rats whencompared to standard rat chows by the criteria of weight, survival toadulthood, hematology and reproduction. The critical nutritional factorturned out to be iron bioavailability, with ferrous iron added to the dietimproving the health of Belgrade rats without affecting the underlyingerythroid defect. Tissue iron measurements after dietary or parenteralsupplementation confirmed the iron deficient status of untreated b/b rats andestablished that dietary ferrous iron partially relieved this deficiency,with injections leading to greater amounts of tissue iron. Serum iron andTIBC were also found to be elevated in untreated b/b rats, with dietarysupplementation decreasing but not eliminating the elevation in TIBC. Thesestudies indicate that iron supplements can improve the health of b/b ratswithout altering the underlying defect and also suggest that the mutationcould alter iron uptake in the GI (gastrointestinal) tract.     

Facile synthesis and characterization of novel pyrazole-sulfonamides and their inhibition effects on human carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes

In the current study, a series of pyrazole-sulfonamide derivatives (2–14) were synthesized, characterized, and the inhibition effects of the derivatives on human carbonic anhydrases (hCA I and hCA II) were investigated as in vitro. Structures of these sulfonamides were confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and LC–MS analysis. ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR revealed the tautomeric structures. hCA I and hCA II isozymes were purified from human erythrocytes and inhibitory effects of newly synthesized sulfonamides on esterase activities of these isoenzymes have been studied. The K_i values of compounds were 0.062–1.278 μM for hCA I and 0.012–0.379 μM for hCA II. The inhibition effects of 7 for hCA I and 4 for hCA II isozymes were almost in nanomolar concentration range.     

Effects of Progesterone, β-Estradiol,and Androsterone on the Changes of Inorganic Element Content in Barley Leaves

The present study was performed to determine the changes in inorganic element content in barley leaves of mammalian sex hormones (MSH). Barley leaves were sprayed with 10⁻⁴, 10⁻⁶, 10⁻⁹, 10⁻¹², 10⁻¹⁵ M concentrations of progesterone, β-estradiol, and androsterone at 7th day after sowing. The plants were harvested at the end of 18 days after treatment with MSH solutions. The inorganic element concentrations were determined using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy technique. Although the all MSH concentrations significantly (p < 0.05) increased the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, copper, manganese, aluminum, zinc, iron, potassium, and chlorine, it decreased those of sodium concentration in barley leaves. The maximum changes in the element concentrations were obtained at 10⁻⁹ M for plant leaves treated with progesterone, 10⁻⁶ M for plant leaves treated with β-estradiol and androsterone. The present study elucidated that MSH significantly (p < 0.05) affected the inorganic element concentrations in barley leaves.     

Exogenously Treated Mammalian Sex Hormones Affect Inorganic Constituents of Plants

The present study was undertaken to reveal the changes in inorganic constituents of plants exposed to mammalian sex hormones (MSH). Chickpea leaves were sprayed with 10⁻⁴, 10⁻⁶, 10⁻⁹, 10⁻¹², and 10⁻¹⁵ M concentrations of progesterone, β-estradiol, and androsterone at 7th day after sowing. The plants were harvested at the end of 18 days after treatment of MSH solutions and the inorganic components determined using a wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy technique. At all of the concentrations tested, MSH significantly increased the contents of K, S, Na, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, P, Cu, and Ni. Interestingly, only Mn and Cl contents decreased. The maximum changes in the inorganic composition were recorded at 10⁻⁶ M for plants treated with progesterone and 10⁻⁹ M for plants treated with β-estradiol and androsterone.     

The Design of Simple Bacterial Microarrays: Development towards Immobilizing Single Living Bacteria on Predefined Micro-Sized Spots on Patterned Surfaces

In this paper we demonstrate a procedure for preparing bacterial arrays that is fast, easy, and applicable in a standard molecular biology laboratory. Microcontact printing is used to deposit chemicals promoting bacterial adherence in predefined positions on glass surfaces coated with polymers known for their resistance to bacterial adhesion. Highly ordered arrays of immobilized bacteria were obtained using microcontact printed islands of polydopamine (PD) on glass surfaces coated with the antiadhesive polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG). On such PEG-coated glass surfaces, bacteria were attached to 97 to 100% of the PD islands, 21 to 62% of which were occupied by a single bacterium. A viability test revealed that 99% of the bacteria were alive following immobilization onto patterned surfaces. Time series imaging of bacteria on such arrays revealed that the attached bacteria both divided and expressed green fluorescent protein, both of which indicates that this method of patterning of bacteria is a suitable method for single-cell analysis.     

Analysis of apoplastic and symplastic antioxidant system in shallot leaves: impacts of weak static electric and magnetic field

Impacts of electric and magnetic fields (EFs and MFs) on a biological organism vary depending on their application style, time, and intensities. High intensity MF and EF have destructive effects on plants. However, at low intensities, these phenomena are of special interest because of the complexity of plant responses. This study reports the effects of continuous, low-intensity static MF (7 mT) and EF (20 kV/m) on growth and antioxidant status of shallot (Allium ascalonicum L.) leaves, and evaluates whether shifts in antioxidant status of apoplastic and symplastic area help plants to adapt a new environment. Growth was induced by MF but EF applied emerged as a stress factor. Despite a lack of visible symptoms of injury, lipid peroxidation and H?O? levels increased in EF applied leaves. Certain symplastic antioxidant enzyme activities and non-enzymatic antioxidant levels increased in response to MF and EF applications. Antioxidant enzymes in the leaf apoplast, by contrast, were found to show different regulation responses to EF and MF. Our results suggest that apoplastic constituents may work as potentially important redox regulators sensing and signaling environmental changes. Static continuous MF and EF at low intensities have distinct impacts on growth and the antioxidant system in plant leaves, and weak MF is involved in antioxidant-mediated reactions in the apoplast, resulting in overcoming a possible redox imbalance.     

A task scheduling algorithm for arbitrarily-connected processors with awareness of link contention

In this paper, we present a new task scheduling algorithm, called Contention-Aware Scheduling (CAS) algorithm, with the objective of delivering good quality of schedules in low running-time by considering contention on links of arbitrarily-connected, heterogeneous processors. The CAS algorithm schedules tasks on processors and messages on links by considering the earliest finish time attribute with the virtual cut-through (VCT) or the store-and-forward (SAF) switching. There are three types of CAS algorithm presented in this paper, which differ in ordering the messages from immediate predecessor tasks. As part of the experimental study, the performance of the CAS algorithm is compared with two well-known APN (arbitrary processor network) scheduling algorithms. Experiments on the results of the synthetic benchmarks and the task graphs of the well-known problems clearly show that our CAS algorithm outperforms the related work with respect to performance (given in normalized schedule length) and cost (given in running time) to generate output schedules. Ali Fuat Alkaya received the B.Sc. degree in mathematics from Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey in 1998, and the M.Sc. degree in computer engineering from Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2002. He is currently a Ph.D. student in engineering management department at the same university. His research interests include task scheduling and analysis of algorithms. Haluk Rahmi Topcuoglu received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in computer engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1991 and 1993, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from Syracuse University in 1999. He has been on the faculty at Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey since Fall 1999, where he is currently an Associate Professor in computer engineering department. His main research interests are task scheduling and mapping in parallel and distributed systems; parallel processing; evolutionary algorithms and their applicability for stationary and dynamic environments. He is a member of the ACM, the IEEE, and the IEEE Computer Society. e-mail: haluk@eng.marmara.edu.tr e-mail: falkaya@eng.marmara.edu.tr