A 65-Year-Old Man With Concerns of Hemoptysis After Recent Motor Vehicle Accident and Blunt Trauma to Chest.

CASE PRESENTATION: A 65-year-old man with a medical history of anxiety and depression came to the ED with concerns of coughing blood-tinged phlegm for the past 3 days. Four days before the presentation, the patient had a motor vehicle accident as a restrained driver with airbag deployment. The patient struck his chest against the steering wheel. He was evaluated at a level 1 trauma center and underwent a whole-body scan, including a CT scan of the chest, which showed no acute abnormalities. Apart from mild-to-moderate bruising and tenderness on the right side of his face, nose, and anterior chest, the patient was stable and was discharged the next day. After returning home, the patient started coughing blood-tinged phlegm, which became progressively bloodier for the next 3 days, achieving individual posttussive volumes of 1 T of frank blood. In the ED, the patient denied any similar symptoms in the past. He denied any recent or distant known history of malignancy, infections, or travel outside the United States. He lives by himself and previously worked various jobs. He endorsed active tobacco use and smoking 3 to 6 cigarettes per day for the past 20 years with 5 pack-year history. Patient reported consuming one to two alcohol drinks per month.

Silver nanoparticles protect tillering in drought-stressed wheat by improving leaf water relations and physiological functioning.

The tillering phase of wheat (Triticum aestivum ) crops is extremely susceptible to drought. We explored the potential of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in protecting wheat genotypes from drought injury during this sensitive stage. After treating with AgNPs (60ppm), the plants were submitted to different water levels; i.e. 100% field capacity (FC), 75% FC (mild drought), 50% FC (moderate drought) and 25% FC (severe drought) from 15 to 41days after sowing (tillering phase). Leaf physiological data were collected at stress termination, while yield attributes were recorded at crop maturity. We found that increasing drought intensity significantly impaired leaf physiology and grain yield of both studied genotypes. Compared with control, moderately and severely drought-stressed plants produced 25% and 45% lesser grain yield per spike, respectively (averaged across genotypes and years of study). Likewise, moderate and severe drought reduced photosynthesis by 49% and 76%, respectively, compared with control. In contrast, AgNPs significantly restored leaf physiological functioning and grain yield formation at maturity. For example, under moderate and severe drought, AgNPs-treated plants produced 22% and 17% more grains per plant, respectively, than their respective water-treated plants. Our study suggests that exogenous AgNPs can protect wheat crops from drought during early development stages.