Heat-tolerant hot pepper exhibits constant photosynthesis via increased transpiration rate, high proline content and fast recovery in heat stress condition.

Understanding the mechanism for heat tolerance is important for the hot pepper breeding program to develop heat-tolerant cultivars in changing climate. This study was conducted to investigate physiological and biochemical parameters related to heat tolerance and to determine leaf heat damage levels critical for selecting heat-tolerant genotypes. Seedlings of two commercial cultivars, heat-tolerant 'NW Bigarim' (NB) and susceptible 'Chyung Yang' (CY), were grown in 42 °C for ten days. Photosynthesis, electrolyte conductivity, proline content were measured among seedlings during heat treatment. Photosynthetic rate was significantly reduced in 'CY' but not in 'NB' seedlings in 42 °C. Stomatal conductivity and transpiration rate was significantly higher in 'NB' than 'CY'. Proline content was also significantly higher in 'NB'. After heat treatment, leaf heat damages were determined as 0, 25, 50 and 75% and plants with different leaf heat damages were moved to a glasshouse (30-32/22-24 °C in day/night). The growth and developmental parameters were investigated until 70 days. 'NB' was significantly affected by leaf heat damages only in fruit yield while 'CY' was in fruit set, number and yield. 'NB' showed fast recovery after heat stress compared to 'CY'. These results suggest that constant photosynthetic rate via increased transpiration rate as well as high proline content in heat stress condition confer faster recovery from heat damage of heat-tolerant cultivars in seedlings stages.

Altitudinal Visual Field Defects Following Diagnostic Transfemoral Cerebral Angiography.

Transfemoral cerebral angiography (TFCA) has been increasingly used as diagnostic method for the evaluation of cerebral vessels. Ophthalmologic complication after TFCA has rarely been reported, and most complications are associated with an intraoperative thrombo-embolic event. We reported a patient who developed a superior altitudinal visual field defect one day after diagnostic TFCA. The ophthalmic exam revealed a prominent inferior optic disc edema, and the fluorescein angiographic showed the non-perfusion of the corresponding inferior sectoral optic disc. Diffusion-weighted MRI on the day following cerebral angiography revealed multiple focal scattered acute infarctions. Even one month after steroid pulse therapy, the superior nasal field defect remained with minimal improvement. We believe this case was consistent with an acute anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) due to thrombo-embolism after TFCA. Ophthalmic examinations and a visual field test should be performed before and immediately after the TFCA, particularly in the case with a high risk of thromboembolic events.

Alpha Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities of Plants with Focus on Common Vegetables.

Type-2 diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent metabolic diseases in the world, and is characterized by hyperglycemia (i.e., high levels of glucose in the blood). Alpha-glucosidases are enzymes in the digestive tract that hydrolyze carbohydrates into glucose. One strategy that has been developed to treat type-2 diabetes is inhibition of the activity of alpha-glucosidases using synthetic drugs. However, these inhibitors are usually associated with gastrointestinal side effects. Therefore, the development of inhibitors from natural products offers an alternative option for the control of hyperglycemia. In recent years, various studies have been conducted to identify alpha-glucosidases inhibitors from natural sources such as plants, and many candidates have transpired to be secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, and terpenoids. In this review, we focus on the alpha-glucosidases inhibitors found in common vegetable crops and the major classes of phytochemicals responsible for the inhibitory activity, and also as potential/natural drug candidates for the treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, possible breeding strategies for production of improved vegetable crops with higher content of the inhibitors are also described.

Differentiating cervical metastatic lymphadenopathy and lymphoma by shear wave elastography.

Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a recent technological advance of ultrasonography (US) to assess tissue stiffness. The purpose of this study is to assess tissue stiffness of malignant cervical lymph nodes (LN) with SWE, to reveal diagnostic performance of SWE in differentiating metastatic LN from lymphoma, and to assess inter-observer agreement of SWE. We assessed 62 malignant LN (24 lymphomas and 38 metastatic LN) and their median speed was 6.34 m/s and median elasticity was 69.7 kPa. Add of SWE with conventional US improved diagnostic accuracy of differentiating metastasis from lymphoma (16.13, 8.07 and 11.3% for three radiologists). Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance of three readers for analyzing SWE patterns was 0.86. SWE can be a useful tool to discriminate metastatic cervical LN from lymphoma with improvement of diagnostic accuracy when using with conventional US.

A semi-automated volumetric software for segmentation and perfusion parameter quantification of brain tumors using 320-row multidetector computed tomography: a validation study.

PURPOSE: We developed a semi-automated volumetric software, NPerfusion, to segment brain tumors and quantify perfusion parameters on whole-brain CT perfusion (WBCTP) images. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of the software and to validate its performance compared with manual segmentation. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with pathologically proven brain tumors who underwent preoperative WBCTP between August 2012 and February 2015 were included. Three perfusion parameters, arterial flow (AF), equivalent blood volume (EBV), and Patlak flow (PF, which is a measure of permeability of capillaries), of brain tumors were generated by a commercial software and then quantified volumetrically by NPerfusion, which also semi-automatically segmented tumor boundaries. The quantification was validated by comparison with that of manual segmentation in terms of the concordance correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: With NPerfusion, we successfully performed segmentation and quantified whole volumetric perfusion parameters of all 29 brain tumors that showed consistent perfusion trends with previous studies. The validation of the perfusion parameter quantification exhibited almost perfect agreement with manual segmentation, with Lin concordance correlation coefficients (ρ c) for AF, EBV, and PF of 0.9988, 0.9994, and 0.9976, respectively. On Bland-Altman analysis, most differences between this software and manual segmentation on the commercial software were within the limit of agreement. CONCLUSIONS: NPerfusion successfully performs segmentation of brain tumors and calculates perfusion parameters of brain tumors. We validated this semi-automated segmentation software by comparing it with manual segmentation. NPerfusion can be used to calculate volumetric perfusion parameters of brain tumors from WBCTP.

Development and validation of Korean version of psychosocial impact of assistive devices scale.

This study aimed to develop and assess the reliability of the Korean version of the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (K-PIADS). Experts and researchers in the field of assistive technology carried out the original PIADS with a rigorous translation process. To this end, comprehensive measures were taken, including preliminary translation, reverse translation, verification, and expert panel review. Forty-eight people who are currently using an assistive technology (AT) device participated in the validation phase of this study. Findings suggested that reliability for a K-PIADS was very high (micro = 0.94). The findings of this study indicated that the result could be applied to psychosocial evaluation related to the quality of life of AT device users with disabilities. Replication studies are warranted to further validate K-PIADS.