Legumes and common beans in sustainable diets: nutritional quality, environmental benefits, spread and use in food preparations.

In recent decades, scarcity of available resources, population growth and the widening in the consumption of processed foods and of animal origin have made the current food system unsustainable. High-income countries have shifted towards food consumption patterns which is causing an increasingly process of environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, with the increased incidence of malnutrition due to excess (obesity and non-communicable disease) and due to chronic food deprivation. An urgent challenge is, therefore, to move towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices and reorientating food production and distribution to obtain a human and planetary health benefit.

The ascorbate-glutathione cycle coming of age.

Concepts regarding the operation of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle and the associated water/water cycle in the processing of metabolically generated hydrogen peroxide and other forms of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are well established in the literature. However, our knowledge of the functions of these cycles and their component enzymes continues to grow and evolve. Recent insights include participation in the intrinsic environmental and developmental signalling pathways that regulate plant growth, development, and defence.

Feasibility Study: Towards a Robot-Assisted Gait Training in Ophthalmological Rehabilitation.

The idea of using mobile assistance robots for gait training in rehabilitation has been increasingly explored in recent years due to the associated benefits. This paper describes how the previous results of research and praxis on gait training with a mobile assistance robot in orthopedic rehabilitation can be transferred to ophthalmic-related orientation and mobility training for blind and visually impaired people. To this end, the specific requirements for such orientation and mobility training are presented from a therapeutic perspective.

In order to lower the antinutritional activity of serine protease inhibitors, we need to understand their role in seed development.

Proteases, including serine proteases, are involved in the entire life cycle of plants. Proteases are controlled by protease inhibitors (PI) to limit any uncontrolled or harmful protease activity. The role of PIs in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance is well documented, however their role in various other plant processes has not been fully elucidated.

ONLINE-TICS: Internet-Delivered Behavioral Treatment for Patients with Chronic Tic Disorders.

Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is considered a first-line therapy for tics. However, availability of CBIT is extremely limited due to a lack of qualified therapists. This study is a multicenter ( = 5), randomized, controlled, observer-blind trial including 161 adult patients with chronic tic disorders (CTD) to provide data on efficacy and safety of an internet-delivered, completely therapist-independent CBIT intervention (iCBIT Minddistrict) in the treatment of tics compared to placebo and face-to-face (f2f) CBIT.

Loop replacement design: a new way to improve potency of plant cystatins.

Plant cystatins function as competitive inhibitors of cysteine proteases. Similar to other defence proteins, cystatins include hypervariable, positively selected amino acid sites presumably impacting their biological activity. Protein engineering approaches, such as point mutations, at these functionally relevant amino acid sites have already been found to be a powerful tool in improving the inhibitory properties of cystatins.

EMS Derived Wheat Mutant BIG8-1 ( L.)-A New Drought Tolerant Mutant Wheat Line.

Drought response in wheat is considered a highly complex process, since it is a multigenic trait; nevertheless, breeding programs are continuously searching for new wheat varieties with characteristics for drought tolerance. In a previous study, we demonstrated the effectiveness of a mutant known as RYNO3936 that could survive 14 days without water. In this study, we reveal another mutant known as BIG8-1 that can endure severe water deficit stress (21 days without water) with superior drought response characteristics.

Papain-like cysteine proteases are required for the regulation of photosynthetic gene expression and acclimation to high light stress.

Chloroplasts are considered to be devoid of cysteine proteases. Using transgenic Arabidopsis lines expressing the rice cystatin, oryzacystatin I (OC-I), in the chloroplasts (PC lines) or cytosol (CYS lines), we explored the hypothesis that cysteine proteases regulate photosynthesis. The CYS and PC lines flowered later than the wild type (WT) and accumulated more biomass after flowering.

Wheat Line "RYNO3936" Is Associated With Delayed Water Stress-Induced Leaf Senescence and Rapid Water-Deficit Stress Recovery.

Random mutagenesis was applied to produce a new wheat mutant (RYNO3926) with superior characteristics regarding tolerance to water deficit stress induced at late booting stage. The mutant also displays rapid recovery from water stress conditions. Under water stress conditions mutant plants reached maturity faster and produced more seeds than its wild type wheat progenitor.

In search for drought-tolerant soybean: is the slow-wilting phenotype more than just a curiosity?

This article comments on: 2019. The importance of slow canopy wilting in drought tolerance in soybean, Journal of Experimental Botany 71, 642–652.

10-Year Results of FLEx Refractive Surgery.

Purpose: To evaluate the 10-year results of femtosecond lenticule extraction (FLEx) for treatment of myopia and myopic astigmatism.

Methods: This long-term follow-up of a prospective clinical trial was conducted at HELIOS Klinikum Erfurt and Phillips University of Marburg, Germany. In 2006, 108 eyes underwent the FLEx procedure.

10-Year Results of Small Incision Lenticule Extraction.

Purpose: To evaluate the 10-year results of refractive lenticule extraction using the small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) technique for treatment of myopia and myopic astigmatism.

Methods: In 2008-2009, the first 91 eyes were treated using a novel surgical technique (SMILE), in which a refractive lenticule of intrastromal corneal tissue is removed through a small incision, completely eliminating flap cutting. A total of 56 of 91 eyes of the original treatment group volunteered for reexamination 10 years after surgery, including uncorrected and corrected distance visual acuity, objective and manifest refraction, and evaluation of the interface and corneal surface by slit-lamp examination.

[Retrospective Study of Long-term Patient Satisfaction after Bilateral Implantation of Multifocal Intraocular Lenses of Different Generations - a 10 Year Follow-up].

Background: This retrospective study investigates the postoperative satisfaction of patients with a mixed generation background after bilateral implantation of non-toric multifocal intraocular lenses between the year 2006 and year 2017.

Patients/methods: 245 patients between 45 and 95 years old were included in the study. Patient satisfaction was examined with the Heidelberg DATE questionnaire (DATE: Daily Tasks Evaluation), with respect to everyday tasks and the perception of optical phenomena.

Plant Vacuolar Processing Enzymes.

Plant proteomes contain hundreds of proteases divided into different families based on evolutionary and functional relationship. In particular, plant cysteine proteases of the C1 (papain-like) and C13 (legumain-like) families play key roles in many physiological processes. The legumain-like proteases, also called vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs), perform a multifunctional role in different plant organs and during different stages of plant development and death.

Expression of a Small Ubiquitin-Like Modifier Protease Increases Drought Tolerance in Wheat ( L.).

Post-translation modification of proteins plays a critical role in cellular signaling processes. In recent years, the SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-Like Modifier) class of molecules has emerged as an influential mechanism for target protein management. SUMO proteases play a vital role in regulating pathway flux and are therefore ideal targets for manipulating stress-responses.

Interface morphology and gas production by a refractive 347 nm ultraviolet femtosecond laser: Comparison with established laser systems.

Purpose: To evaluate gas production and interface quality after refractive lenticule creation. A new ultraviolet (UV) 347 nm femtosecond laser was compared with the FS200 and the Visumax lasers.

Setting: Department of Anatomy II, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.

Orphan Legumes Growing in Dry Environments: Marama Bean as a Case Study.

Plants have developed morphological, physiological, biochemical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms to survive in drought-stricken environments with little or no water caused by below-average precipitation. In this mini-review, we highlight the characteristics that allows marama bean [ (Burchell) Schreiber], an example of an orphan legume native to arid regions of southwestern Southern Africa, to flourish under an inhospitable climate and dry soil conditions where no other agricultural crop competes in this agro-ecological zone. Orphan legumes are often better suited to withstand such harsh growth environments due to development of survival strategies using a combination of different traits and responses.

Influence of the beam profile crosslinking setting on changes in corneal topography and tomography in progressive keratoconus: Preliminary results.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of accelerated corneal crosslinking (CXL) with a "higher peripheral intensity" profile setting compared with a standard "top hat" profile setting performed using different CXL systems.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany.

Design: Retrospective case series.

[Dacryoendoscopic Surgery-Factors Influencing Postoperative Results].

Background: Dacryoendoscopy (DE) is an established method in lacrimal surgery. Long-term follow-up-analyses of this surgery are of great interest. Here, factors influencing postoperative success rates should be considered to elect suitable patients.

Strigolactones positively regulate chilling tolerance in pea and in Arabidopsis.

Strigolactones (SL) fulfil important roles in plant development and stress tolerance. Here, we characterized the role of SL in the dark chilling tolerance of pea and Arabidopsis by analysis of mutants that are defective in either SL synthesis or signalling. Pea mutants (rms3, rms4, and rms5) had significantly greater shoot branching with higher leaf chlorophyll a/b ratios and carotenoid contents than the wild type.

Topical administration of regorafenib eye drops: phase I dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers.

Aim: Regorafenib is a multikinase inhibitor under investigation for use in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. In this phase I study, regorafenib eye drops were administered to healthy volunteers to provide information on safety, tolerability and systemic exposure.

Methods: This was a single-centre, randomized, double-masked, parallel-group, dose-escalation, placebo-controlled study.

Semifluorinated Alkane Eye Drops for Treatment of Dry Eye Disease Due to Meibomian Gland Disease.

Purpose: Meibomian gland disease is generally accepted as the leading cause for evaporative dry eye disease (DED). In a previous study, perfluorohexyloctane, a semifluorinated alkane, has been demonstrated to significantly increase tear film breakup time and to reduce corneal fluorescein staining in patients with evaporative DED, thereby vastly reducing dry eye-related symptoms. This study was set up to evaluate perfluorohexyloctane in a larger population of patients with Meibomian gland dysfunction.