Real-time video analysis allows the identification of large vessel occlusion in patients with suspected stroke: feasibility trial of a "telestroke" pathway in Northwestern Switzerland.

Background And Aim: Loss of time is a major obstacle to efficient stroke treatment. Our telestroke path intends to optimize prehospital triage using a video link connecting ambulance personnel and a stroke physician. The objectives were as follows: (1) To identify patients suffering a stroke and (2) in particular large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes as candidates for endovascular treatment.

Establishing Prediction Intervals for the SpeedWheel Acuity Test in Adults and Children.

Background: The SpeedWheel (SW) test is an objective test of visual acuity (VA) using suppression of the optokinetic nystagmus (OKN). Here, we established prediction intervals of the SW measures compared to Snellen acuity in adults and children.

Subjects And Methods: In this prospective, single center study, subjects aged at least 4 years underwent testing of VA with SW, Landolt-C, and Tumbling-E symbols (Freiburg acuity test: FrACT-C, FrACT-E).

Longitudinal Analysis of Quality of Life, Clinical, Radiographic, Echocardiographic, and Laboratory Variables in Dogs with Preclinical Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease Receiving Pimobendan or Placebo: The EPIC Study.

Background: Changes in clinical variables associated with the administration of pimobendan to dogs with preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and cardiomegaly have not been described.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of pimobendan on clinical variables and the relationship between a change in heart size and the time to congestive heart failure (CHF) or cardiac-related death (CRD) in dogs with MMVD and cardiomegaly. To determine whether pimobendan-treated dogs differ from dogs receiving placebo at onset of CHF.

Effect of Pimobendan in Dogs with Preclinical Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease and Cardiomegaly: The EPIC Study-A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Pimobendan is effective in treatment of dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF) secondary to myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). Its effect on dogs before the onset of CHF is unknown.

Hypothesis/objectives: Administration of pimobendan (0.

Physiological responses related to increased grain yield under drought in the first biotechnology-derived drought-tolerant maize.

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) is highly susceptible to drought stress.

Carvedilol in dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by reduced systolic function, heightened sympathetic tone, and high morbidity and mortality. Little is known regarding the safety and efficacy of beta-blocker treatment in dogs with DCM.

Hypothesis: Carvedilol improves echocardiographic and neurohormonal variables in dogs with DCM over a 4-month treatment period.

Results of the veterinary enalapril trial to prove reduction in onset of heart failure in dogs chronically treated with enalapril alone for compensated, naturally occurring mitral valve insufficiency.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of long-term enalapril administration in delaying the onset of congestive heart failure (CHF).

Design: Placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter, randomized trial.

Animals: 124 dogs with compensated mitral valve regurgitation (MR).

Modifying lysine biosynthesis and catabolism in corn with a single bifunctional expression/silencing transgene cassette.

Although it is one of the major crops in the world, corn has poor nutritional quality for human and animal consumption due to its low lysine content. Here, we report a method of simultaneous expression of a deregulated lysine biosynthetic enzyme, CordapA, and reduction of a bifunctional lysine degradation enzyme, lysine-ketoglutarate reductase/saccharophine dehydrogenase (LKR/SDH), in transgenic corn plants by a single transgene cassette. This is accomplished by inserting an inverted-repeat sequence targeting the maize LKR/SDH gene into an intron of a transgene cassette that expresses CordapA.

High-lysine corn generated by endosperm-specific suppression of lysine catabolism using RNAi.

Because of the limited lysine content in corn grain, synthetic lysine supplements are added to corn meal-based rations for animal feed. The development of biotechnology, combined with the understanding of plant lysine metabolism, provides an alternative solution for increasing corn lysine content through genetic engineering. Here, we report that by suppressing lysine catabolism, transgenic maize kernels accumulated a significant amount of lysine.

High-lysine corn produced by the combination of enhanced lysine biosynthesis and reduced zein accumulation.

Corn is one of the major crops in the world, but its low lysine content is often problematic for animal consumption. While exogenous lysine supplementation is still the most common solution for today's feed corn, high-lysine corn has been developed through genetic research and biotechnology. Reducing the lysine-poor seed storage proteins, zeins, or expressing a deregulated lysine biosynthetic enzyme, CordapA, has shown increased total lysine or free lysine content in the grains of modified corn plants, respectively.

High lysine and high tryptophan transgenic maize resulting from the reduction of both 19- and 22-kD alpha-zeins.

The major maize seed storage proteins, zeins, are deficient in lysine and tryptophan content, which contribute to the poor nutritional quality of corn. Whether through the identification of mutations or genetic engineering, kernels with reduced levels of zein proteins have been shown to have increased levels of lysine and tryptophan. It has been hypothesized that these increases are due to the reduction of lysine-poor zeins and a pleiotropic increase in the lysine-rich non-zein proteins.

Generation of marker-free transgenic maize by regular two-border Agrobacterium transformation vectors.

By introducing additional T-DNA borders into a binary plasmid used in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation, previous studies have demonstrated that the marker gene and the gene of interest (GOI) can be carried by independent T-strands, which sometimes integrate in unlinked loci in the plant genome. This allows the recovery of marker-free transgenic plants through genetic segregation in the next generation. In this study, we have found that by repositioning the selectable marker gene in the backbone and leaving only the GOI in the T-DNA region, a regular two-border binary plasmid was able to generate marker-free transgenic maize plants more efficiently than a conventional single binary plasmid with multiple T-DNA borders.

Improving nutritional quality of maize proteins by expressing sense and antisense zein genes.

The predominant proteins in maize grain are a family of alcohol-soluble prolamin storage proteins called zeins. They account for >50% of total seed proteins but are deficient in several essential amino acids. As a result, the corn grain is considered to be nutritionally poor for monogastric animals with respect to key essential amino acids, most notably lysine, tryptophan, and methionine.

Effects of long-term administration of enalapril on clinical indicators of renal function in dogs with compensated mitral regurgitation.

Objective: To determine the effect of long-term administration of enalapril on renal function in dogs with severe, compensated mitral regurgitation.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Animals: 139 dogs with mitral regurgitation but without overt signs of heart failure.

Developmental expression of the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex in pea (Pisum sativum) seedlings.

In order to better understand control of the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC), total catalytic activity was determined during development of the primary leaves of pea (Pisum sativum L.) seedlings, as well as in each leaf pair of 21-day-old plants. Activity of the PDC in clarified homogenates was highest in the youngest organs and then dropped dramatically as the leaves matured and became photosynthetically competent.

The dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase subunit of the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex from maize contains a single lipoyl domain.

The dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase (E2) subunit of the maize mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) was postulated to contain a single lipoyl domain based upon molecular mass and N-terminal protein sequence (Thelen, J. J., Miernyk, J.

Cloning and molecular analyses of the Arabidopsis thaliana plastid pyruvate dehydrogenase subunits.

Herein we report the first molecular description of the pyruvate dehydrogenase component of the higher plant plastid pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. The full-length cDNAs for the E1 alpha (1530 bp) and E1 beta (1441 bp) subunits of the Arabidopsis thaliana plastid pyruvate dehydrogenase contain open reading frames that encode polypeptides of 428 and 406 amino acids, respectively, with calculated molecular weight values of 47,120 and 44,208. The deduced amino acid sequences for Arabidopsis plastid E1 alpha and E1 beta have 61% and 68% identity to the odpA and odpB genes of the red alga Porphyra purpurea, respectively, but only 31% and 32% identity to the plant mitochondrial counterparts.

The mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex: nucleotide and deduced amino-acid sequences of a cDNA encoding the Arabidopsis thaliana E1 alpha-subunit.

A cDNA encoding the E1 alpha subunit of the Arabidopsis thaliana (At) mitochondrial (mt) pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) was sequenced. The 1435-bp cDNA consists of a 1167-bp open reading frame encoding a 43.0-kDa polypeptide of 389 amino acids (aa) (pI 7.

Purification, Characterization, and Submitochondrial Localization of a 58-Kilodalton NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase.

An NADH dehydrogenase activity from red beet (Beta vulgaris L.) root mitochondria was purified to a 58-kD protein doublet. An immunologically related dehydrogenase was partially purified from maize (Zea mays L.

Purification, Characterization, and Submitochondrial Localization of the 32-Kilodalton NADH Dehydrogenase from Maize.

Plant mitochondria have the unique ability to directly oxidize exogenous NAD(P)H. We recently separated two NAD(P)H dehydrogenase activities from maize (Zea mays L.) mitochondria using anion-exchange (Mono Q) chromatography.