Null mutants of a tomato Rho of plants exhibit enhanced water use efficiency without a penalty to yield.

Improving water use efficiency in crops is a significant challenge as it involves balancing water transpiration and CO uptake through stomatal pores. This study investigates the role of SlROP9, a tomato Rho of Plants protein, in guard cells and its impact on plant transpiration. The results reveal that SlROP9 null mutants exhibit reduced stomatal conductance while photosynthetic CO assimilation remains largely unaffected.

Cost effectiveness and affordability of trastuzumab in sub-Saharan Africa for early stage -positive breast cancer.

Background: Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, the most common among women, and the most frequent cause of death among women in less developed regions. Trastuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that downregulates the extracellular domain of the protein. Using trastuzumab to treat women with localized -positive breast cancer has been shown to improve survival.

Epigenetics and child abuse: Modern-day Darwinism--The miraculous ability of the human genome to adapt, and then adapt again.

It has long been recognized that early adversity can have life-long consequences, and the extent to which this is true is gaining increasing attention. A growing body of literature implicates Adverse Childhood Experiences, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, in a broad range of negative health consequences including adult psychopathology, cardiovascular, and immune disease. Increasing evidence from animal, clinical, and epidemiological studies highlight the critical role of epigenetic programing, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, in altering gene expression, brain structure and function, and ultimately life-course trajectories.

Evaluation of a possible inflammatory response after appendectomy for non-perforated appendicitis in children.

Background: The inflammatory process in the post-appendectomy period is not well characterized. In a pilot study, we prospectively followed the kinetics of different inflammatory mediators before and after appendectomy in children, and compared the results of the groups open appendectomy (OA) and laparoscopic appendectomy (LA).

Material And Methods: Levels of sP-selectin, tPA, MCP-1, IL-6, IL-8, sVCAM-1, and sCD40L were measured before appendectomy and on the next three consecutive days in the serum of 25 children (16 males and 9 females) aged 7 - 16 years (mean 12.