Subject(s)
Mental Competency/legislation & jurisprudence , Patient Rights/legislation & jurisprudence , Physician-Patient Relations , Adult , Advance Directives/ethics , Advance Directives/legislation & jurisprudence , Age Factors , Civil Rights/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Informed Consent , Mental Competency/psychology , Patient Admission/legislation & jurisprudence , Personal Autonomy , Physician-Patient Relations/ethicsABSTRACT
Bioactive gibberellins (GAs) are tetracyclic diterpenoid plant hormones that promote important processes of plant growth and development, such as seed germination, growth through elongation, and floral transition. Thus, mutant plants that are affected in GA biosynthesis or signalling exhibit altered seed germination and, at the adult stage, are dwarf and dark green and also show delayed flowering. The components of the GA metabolism and signalling pathways are reviewed here and recent findings regarding the regulation and possible mode of action of DELLA proteins are discussed.
Subject(s)
Gibberellins/metabolism , Plant Development , Plant Proteins/metabolism , Models, Biological , Plants/metabolism , Signal TransductionABSTRACT
The increase in complexity of computational neuron models makes the hand tuning of model parameters more difficult than ever. Fortunately, the parallel increase in computer power allows scientists to automate this tuning. Optimization algorithms need two essential components. The first one is a function that measures the difference between the output of the model with a given set of parameter and the data. This error function or fitness function makes the ranking of different parameter sets possible. The second component is a search algorithm that explores the parameter space to find the best parameter set in a minimal amount of time. In this review we distinguish three types of error functions: feature-based ones, point-by-point comparison of voltage traces and multi-objective functions. We then detail several popular search algorithms, including brute-force methods, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, differential evolution and particle-swarm optimization. Last, we shortly describe Neurofitter, a free software package that combines a phase-plane trajectory density fitness function with several search algorithms.
Subject(s)
Algorithms , Models, Neurological , Neural Networks, Computer , NeuronsABSTRACT
Many chloroplast genes of cyanobacterial origin have been transferred to the nucleus during evolution and their products are re-addressed to chloroplasts. The RPL21 gene encoding the plastid r-protein L21 has been lost in higher plant chloroplast genomes after the divergence from bryophytes. Based on phylogenetic analysis and intron conservation, we now provide evidence that in Arabidopsis a nuclear RPL21c gene of mitochondrial origin has replaced the chloroplast gene. The control of expression of this gene has been adapted to the needs of chloroplast development by the acquisition of plastid-specific regulatory promoter cis-elements.
Subject(s)
Arabidopsis/genetics , Cell Nucleus/genetics , Chloroplasts/metabolism , DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics , Ribosomal Proteins/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Arabidopsis/metabolism , DNA, Plant/chemistry , DNA, Plant/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Plant , Genome, Plant , Molecular Sequence Data , Phylogeny , Prokaryotic Cells/metabolism , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Ribosomal Proteins/metabolism , Sequence Alignment , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Sequence Homology, Amino AcidABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this multicentre prospective study was to analyse microbial pathogens cultured from an infected wound. METHODS: The study was performed in the emergency rooms of 10 public hospitals. All adult patients with a clinical diagnosis of cellulitis after a wound in the upper or lower extremities were included. Cultures were obtained with swabs from infected lesions. Micro-organisms cultured were identified by the usual methods and susceptibility testing was performed. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 214 patients, 153 men and 61 women, with a mean (SD) age of 40 (10) years. Wound cultures remained sterile in 28 cases and infected with micro-organisms in 186 cases. Of the 186 positive cultures, three were not identified. Of the 183 remaining cultures, one micro-organism was present in 132 patients (62%) and several micro-organisms in 51 patients (24%). A total of 248 micro-organisms were isolated in 183 patients. Staphylococcus and streptococcus were the most frequently isolated micro-organisms (56% and 21% respectively) followed by Gram negative bacilli (18%). Determination of the susceptibility to the antibiotics commonly used to treat wound infections showed resistance in some cases. CONCLUSION: These results support the need always to take culture specimens from infected wounds for microbiological evaluation and antibiotic susceptibility determination, so that adapted chemotherapy can be prescribed.
