The effect of group or individualised pelvic floor exercises with or without ultrasonography guidance for urinary incontinence in elderly women - A pilot study.

Introduction: Pelvic floor exercises combined with patient education has shown to be a promising intervention for women suffering from urinary incontinence. This pilot study investigated the effect of patient education combined with group or individualised pelvic floor exercises, or individualised pelvic floor exercises with ultrasonography guidance.

Methods: Thirty-three elderly women with urinary incontinency completed a block-randomised, assessor-blinded study combining patient education with 12-weeks of pelvic floor exercises either group-based or individual with or without ultrasonography guidance.

A nuclear-localized protein, KOLD SENSITIV-1, affects the expression of cold-responsive genes during prolonged chilling in Arabidopsis.

Plants respond to cold by transcriptional and metabolic responses which underlie tolerance and acclimation mechanisms, but details at the molecular level are incomplete. Here we describe KOLD SENSITIV-1 (KOS1), a new gene required for responses to cold. KOS1 protein is predicted to have coiled-coil, Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes and nuclear-targeting domains.

Similar protein phosphatases control starch metabolism in plants and glycogen metabolism in mammals.

We report that protein phosphorylation is involved in the control of starch metabolism in Arabidopsis leaves at night. sex4 (starch excess 4) mutants, which have strongly reduced rates of starch metabolism, lack a protein predicted to be a dual specificity protein phosphatase. We have shown that this protein is chloroplastic and can bind to glucans and have presented evidence that it acts to regulate the initial steps of starch degradation at the granule surface.

Osmotic stress changes carbohydrate partitioning and fructose-2,6-bisphosphate metabolism in barley leaves.

Carbohydrate metabolism was investigated in barley leaves subjected to drought or osmotic stress induced by sorbitol incubation. Both drought and osmotic stress resulted in accumulation of hexoses, depletion of sucrose and starch, and 5-10-fold increase in the level of the regulatory metabolite fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (Fru-2,6-P). These changes were paralleled by an increased activity ratio of fructose-6-phosphate,2-kinase / fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase (F2KP).

Identification of more than 200 glucose-responsive Arabidopsis genes none of which responds to 3-O-methylglucose or 6-deoxyglucose.

The response of some plant genes to glucose analogues 3-O-methylglucose (3OMG) or 6-deoxyglucose (6DOG) has been cited as evidence for metabolism-independent glucose signalling. To analyse such signalling using a genetic approach, we sought to identify Arabidopsis glucose-responsive genes which also respond to 3OMG and 6DOG in seedlings. Microarray analysis of gene expression in glucose-treated seedlings and RT-PCR analysis of glucose-treated leaf sections identified more than 200 glucose-responsive genes, but none responded to 3OMG or 6DOG.

Fructose-2,6-bisphosphate: a traffic signal in plant metabolism.

Fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (Fru-2,6-P(2)) regulates key reactions of the primary carbohydrate metabolism in all eukaryotes. In plants, Fru-2,6-P(2) coordinates the photosynthetic carbon flux into sucrose and starch biosynthesis. The use of transgenic plants has allowed the regulatory models to be tested by modifying the Fru-2,6-P(2) levels and the enzymes regulated by Fru-2,6-P(2).

Phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding of Arabidopsis 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase.

Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (fru-2,6-P2) is a signalling metabolite that regulates photosynthetic carbon partitioning in plants. The content of fru-2,6-P2 in Arabidopsis leaves varied in response to photosynthetic activity with an abrupt decrease at the start of the photoperiod, gradual increase through the day, and modest decrease at the start of the dark period. In Arabidopsis suspension cells, fru-2,6-P2 content increased in response to an unknown signal upon transfer to fresh culture medium.