Traditionally, edible flowers have been used in alternative medicine by several cultures around the world. Recently, they have gained in popularity as a new trend in worldwide gastronomy because they ...have been added as ingredients in food and beverages since they have important organoleptic properties and beneficial health effects. In fact, edible flower consumption has increased in the last years, and many works have demonstrated that they are essential sources of macronutrients, vitamins, and antioxidant compounds, which give benefits like prevention against illness associated with oxidative stress, some cardiovascular illness, and cancers, among others. Nowadays, the main studies about edible flowers are focused on their nutritional, functional, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties. This review summarizes relevant information about the properties and bioactive compounds content of edible flowers, likewise, the acceptance and security risks of their consumption, highlighting the importance of their incorporation in human nutrition and the main biological activities. According to the revision process, the consumer acceptability of edible flowers and their inclusion in the human diet have been increased due to their positive health effects.
Flowers have traditionally been used in the production of various dishes to improve the sensory aspects of food. In this study, the nutritional and functional composition of cactus flowers was ...evaluated for their possible use in the food industry. The objective of this research was also to identify the main secondary metabolites of flowers by HPLC/ESI/MS analyses. The findings indicated that the most abundant components of the flowers were carbohydrates, followed by ash and proteins. The highest antioxidant capacity, assessed by DPPH• and ABTS•+ assays, was observed in Echinocereus cinerascens, with values of 255.08 and 392.65 µM Trolox equivalents (TE)/g, respectively. These values were also correlated with a high content of phenolic compounds. Forty-four secondary metabolites were detected in total, of which the most predominant corresponded to compounds such as quercetin and isorhamnetin, as well as their derivatives, protocatechuic acid and apigenin. This study indicates that Cactaceae flowers could be a source of nutrients; in addition, the diversity of compounds and their good antioxidant properties suggest that they should be considered as new sources of natural antioxidant compounds in the elaboration of functional products.
Recent advances in machine learning have enabled image-based prediction of local tissue pathology in gliomas, but the clinical usefulness of these predictions is unknown. We aimed to evaluate the ...prognostic ability of imaging-based estimates of cellular density for patients with gliomas, with comparison to the gold standard reference of World Health Organization grading.
Data from 1181 (207 grade II, 246 grade III, 728 grade IV) previously untreated patients with gliomas from a single institution were analyzed. A pretrained random forest model estimated voxelwise tumor cellularity using MR imaging data. Maximum cellular density was correlated with the World Health Organization grade and actual survival, correcting for covariates of age and performance status.
A maximum estimated cellular density of >7681 nuclei/mm
was associated with a worse prognosis and a univariate hazard ratio of 4.21 (
< .001); the multivariate hazard ratio after adjusting for covariates of age and performance status was 2.91 (
< .001). The concordance index between maximum cellular density (adjusted for covariates) and survival was 0.734. The hazard ratio for a high World Health Organization grade (IV) was 7.57 univariate (
< .001) and 5.25 multivariate (
< .001). The concordance index for World Health Organization grading (adjusted for covariates) was 0.761. The maximum cellular density was an independent predictor of overall survival, and a Cox model using World Health Organization grade, maximum cellular density, age, and Karnofsky performance status had a higher concordance (C = 0.764; range 0.748-0.781) than the component predictors.
Image-based estimation of glioma cellularity is a promising biomarker for predicting survival, approaching the prognostic power of World Health Organization grading, with added values of early availability, low risk, and low cost.
To compare the efficacy of computed tomography (CT) texture analysis and conventional evaluation by radiologists for differentiation between large adrenal adenomas and carcinomas.
Quantitative CT ...texture analysis was used to evaluate 54 histopathologically proven adrenal masses (mean size=5.9 cm; range=4.1–10 cm) from 54 patients referred to Anderson Cancer Center from January 2002 through April 2014. The patient group included 32 women (mean age at mass evaluation=59 years) and 22 men (mean age at mass evaluation=61 years). Adrenal lesions seen on precontrast and venous-phase CT images were labelled by three different readers, and the labels were used to generate intensity- and geometry-based textural features. The textural features and the attenuation values were considered as input values for a random forest-based classifier. Similarly, the adrenal lesions were classified by two different radiologists based on morphological criteria. Prediction accuracy and interobserver agreement were compared.
The textural predictive model achieved a mean accuracy of 82%, whereas the mean accuracy for the radiologists was 68.5% (p<0.0001). The interobserver agreements between the predictive model and radiologists 1 and 2 were 0.44 (p<0.0005; 95% confidence interval CI: 0.25–0.62) and 0.47 (p<0.0005; 95% CI: 0.28–0.66), respectively. The Dice similarity coefficient between the readers' image labels was 0.875±0.04.
CT texture analysis of large adrenal adenomas and carcinomas is likely to improve CT evaluation of adrenal cortical tumours.
•Inter-reader variability between repeated segmentations is minimal.•ACC showed higher median attenuation and more heterogeneity of the masses on CT texture analysis.•Overall accuracy of the machine learning model was 82% compared to 68.5% for the conventional evaluation.•Machine-learning based texture analysis may improve CT evaluation of adrenal cortical tumors.
Sea salt aerosols play an important role in the radiation
budget and atmospheric composition over the Arctic, where the climate is
rapidly changing. Previous observational studies have shown that ...Arctic sea ice leads are an important source of sea salt aerosols, and modeling efforts have also proposed blowing snow sublimation as a source. In this study,
size-resolved atmospheric particle number concentrations and chemical
composition were measured at the Arctic coastal tundra site of
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, during spring (3 April–7 May 2016). Blowing snow conditions were observed during 25 % of the 5-week study period and
were overpredicted by a commonly used blowing snow parameterization based solely on wind speed and temperature. Throughout the study, open leads were
present locally. During periods when blowing snow was observed, significant
increases in the number concentrations of 0.01–0.06 µm particles
(factor of 6, on average) and 0.06–0.3 µm particles (67 %, on average) and a significant decrease (82 %, on average) in 1–4 µm
particles were observed compared to low wind speed periods. These size distribution changes were likely caused by the generation of ultrafine
particles from leads and/or blowing snow, with scavenging of supermicron
particles by blowing snow. At elevated wind speeds, both submicron and
supermicron sodium and chloride mass concentrations were enhanced,
consistent with wind-dependent local sea salt aerosol production. At
moderate wind speeds below the threshold for blowing snow as well as during observed blowing snow, individual sea spray aerosol particles were measured.
These individual salt particles were enriched in calcium relative to sodium
in seawater due to the binding of this divalent cation with organic matter in the sea surface microlayer and subsequent enrichment during seawater
bubble bursting. The chemical composition of the surface snowpack also
showed contributions from sea spray aerosol deposition. Overall, these
results show the contribution of sea spray aerosol production from leads on
both aerosols and the surface snowpack. Therefore, if blowing snow
sublimation contributed to the observed sea salt aerosol, the snow being
sublimated would have been impacted by sea spray aerosol deposition rather than upward brine migration through the snowpack. Sea spray aerosol production from leads is expected to increase, with thinning and fracturing
of sea ice in the rapidly warming Arctic.
Purpose
To study and analyze the effect of the use of a thin guide‐wire instead of a Foley catheter for urethral definition in prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatments and to ...compare treatment parameters in both situations.
Material and Methods
Thirty‐seven prostate SBRT patients were employed in this study. A Foley catheter was employed in nine of them, and a guide‐wire was employed in the other 28 patients. For each of the 28 patients in which the guide‐wire was employed, a comparison between urethral positions in both situations was performed, allowing for a margin definition of the urethra when a Foley catheter was employed. Displacements of the prostate during treatment were obtained, allowing for an analysis of prostate positions in both situations. Also, different treatment parameters such as the number of treatment interruptions, couch movements performed, and x‐rays needed were gathered.
Results
Large differences between urethral positions can be found in the anterior‐posterior (AP) directions compared to those in the lateral (LAT) direction. Differences are also larger in areas closer to the base of the prostate, where margins applied in the case of using a Foley catheter are 16 mm with a mean displacement of 6 mm in the posterior direction. No differences in the treatment parameters were found during treatment in both situations. The difference found in absolute prostate pitch rotations suggests that the Foley catheter provokes a shift of the prostate position, which does not occur when employing the guide‐wire.
Conclusions
Foley catheters shift the urethral position, making them a wrong surrogate of the urethra when no catheters are present. The margins needed to assess uncertainties introduced by the use of a Foley catheter are larger than those usually applied. The use of a Foley catheter did not present any additional difficulty during treatment delivery in terms of images employed or interruptions produced.
Convective transport is an important phenomenon for nanomedicine delivery. We present an imaging-based approach to recover tissue properties that are significant in the accumulation of nanoparticles ...delivered via systemic methods. The classical pharmacokinetic analysis develops governing equations for the particle transport from a first principle mass balance. Fundamentally, the governing equations for compartmental mass balance represent a spatially invariant mass transport between compartments and do not capture spatially variant convection phenomena. Further, the parameters recovered from this approach do not necessarily have direct meaning with respect to the governing equations for convective transport. In our approach, a framework is presented for directly measuring permeability in the sense of Darcy flow through porous tissue. Measurements from our approach are compared to an extended Tofts model as a control. We demonstrate that a pixel-wise iterative clustering algorithm may be applied to reduce the parameter space of the measurements. We show that measurements obtained from our approach are correlated with measurements obtained from the extended Tofts model control. These correlations demonstrate that the proposed approach contains similar information to an established compartmental model and may be useful in providing an alternative theoretical framework for parameterizing mathematical models for treatment planning and diagnostic studies involving nanomedicine where convection dominated effects are important.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Peltetec ophiolitic belt, exposed along the western margin of the Cordillera Real (Ecuador), comprises tectonic slivers of metamorphosed (greenschist facies) and variably deformed metaperidotites ...(serpentinites), gabbros (locally cumulate), greenschist and sub-greenschist rocks. New field data, deformation and petrographic observations, whole-rock major element, mineral composition and P-T determinations of the Peltetec metaophiolite allow determining the metamorphic-geodynamic events of a section of the active western margin of Gondwana during the Mesozoic. Two metamorphic events are proposed: (i) ocean-floor metamorphism during the formation of oceanic lithosphere under low-pressure amphibolite facies conditions (M
0
), followed by (ii) prograde metamorphism up to the greenschist facies along an intermediate (Barrovian) P/T gradient (M
1
; ~315°C and ~ 3.9 kbar, ca. 23°C/km). The first metamorphic event occurred under near-static stress conditions and rocks did not suffer significant deformation. During this event, pyroxenes were replaced by hornblende while plagioclase recrystallized. The second event produced strongly recrystallized and foliated greenschist facies rocks with a peak assemblage of actinolite + chlorite + albite + epidote + titanite ± phengite. We interpreted that this assemblage developed during the closure of a back-arc basin and the emplacement of the ophiolite onto the continental margin in the late Triassic or possibly by compressive events in the Early Cretaceous and/or Late Cretaceous. Later processes are related to the regional mostly strike-slip Peltetec fault/shear zone that produced displacement and mixing of blocks, as indicated by cataclastic structure present in most of the slivers, but without differentiable metamorphic recrystallization overprint.
One of Brazil's efficient soil and water conservation practices is the no‐tillage system (NTS). Nonetheless, erosion during rainfall still causes soil and water losses in this system. Therefore, this ...study aimed to assess surface runoff in different cultivation systems and sediment production during rainfall events. In macro‐plot 1 (non‐terraced catchment NTC), we adopted the NTS management with up‐ and down‐slope farming without including mechanical runoff control practices, which most regional producers use. In macro‐plot 2 (best management practices BMPs), we optimized crop rotation by incorporating a mixture of cover crop species in autumn and implemented contour farming practices. In macroplot 3 (terraced catchment TC), we adopted the same soil management practices as the NTC macroplot, including mechanical runoff control using broad‐based terraces. We used rainfall data to create hyetographs, hydrographs, and sedimentographs, aiming to evaluate the impact of management practices on surface runoff and sediment production. The surface runoff was reduced by 81% (BMPs) and 88% (TC) compared to the NTC system. There was also a reduction in suspended sediment concentration, around 33% (BMPs) and 63% (TC), compared to the NTC system. Despite conservation systems have shown effectiveness in reducing surface runoff and sediment production, monitoring these systems during periods not influenced by the La Niña phenomenon is necessary to assess the impact of rainfall events on soils with conservation practices in extreme events. The study findings provide guidance and recommendations for agricultural producers and field technicians globally, offering criteria for selecting optimal soil and water management practices in no‐till systems. This promotes a conservation‐oriented approach to agriculture.
Semi-arid landscapes in the western Mediterranean have been used for millennia, resulting in large-scale transformations and widespread degradation. In some instances, these degraded environments ...have been unable to recover spontaneously, and ambitious restoration programs have been launched over the last decades to improve landscape conditions. Ecological restoration may speed up succession, promote more complex communities and increase their functionality. But uncertainty in the definition of restoration objectives, failure to identify most efficient practices and, particularly, socio-economic and cultural constrains may compromise future actions. Here, we review recent advances in the restoration of semi-arid vegetation cover in the Iberian southeast, discuss future challenges and suggest two key steps towards increasing the consistency and efficiency of restoration programs: emphasis on ecosystem services, and implementation of participative and adaptive management practices.
► We review past and current restoration practices in the semi-arid Iberian southeast. ► Restoration is compromised by uncertain objectives and inefficient practices. ► But the main constraints to successful restoration are socio-economical and cultural. ► To solve this, projects should be evaluated on composition, function and services. ► Projects should also incorporate principles of participative and adaptive management.
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