The causal-effect of bed rest and post-dural puncture headache in patients receiving diagnostic lumbar puncture: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) is the most common complication of lumbar puncture. Patients who received lumbar puncture were previously suggested to remain in bed for a certain time to prevent PDPH; however, this concept was challenged by recent studies. We aimed to investigate whether ambulation instead of resting supine following lumbar puncture could increase the risk of PDPH.

A specific fungal transcription factor controls effector gene expression and orchestrates the establishment of the necrotrophic pathogen lifestyle on wheat.

The fungus Parastagonospora nodorum infects wheat through the use of necrotrophic effector (NE) proteins that cause host-specific tissue necrosis. The ZnCys transcription factor PnPf2 positively regulates NE gene expression and is required for virulence on wheat. Little is known about other downstream targets of PnPf2.

ACR11 modulates levels of reactive oxygen species and salicylic acid-associated defense response in Arabidopsis.

The ACT domain (aspartate kinase, chorismate mutase and TyrA), an allosteric effector binding domain, is commonly found in amino acid metabolic enzymes. In addition to ACT domain-containing enzymes, plants have a novel family of ACT domain repeat (ACR) proteins, which do not contain any recognizable catalytic domain. Arabidopsis has 12 ACR proteins, whose functions are largely unknown.

The global regulator of pathogenesis PnCon7 positively regulates Tox3 effector gene expression through direct interaction in the wheat pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum.

To investigate effector gene regulation in the wheat pathogenic fungus Parastagonospora nodorum, the promoter and expression of Tox3 was characterised through a series of complementary approaches. Promoter deletion and DNase I footprinting experiments identified a 25 bp region in the Tox3 promoter as being required for transcription. Subsequent yeast one-hybrid analysis using the DNA sequence as bait identified that interacting partner as the C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor PnCon7, a putative master regulator of pathogenesis.

Cathodic-controlled and near-infrared organic upconverter for local blood vessels mapping.

Organic materials are used in novel optoelectronic devices because of the ease and high compatibility of their fabrication processes. Here, we demonstrate a low-driving-voltage cathodic-controlled organic upconverter with a mapping application that converts near-infrared images to produce images of visible blood vessels. The proposed upconverter has a multilayer structure consisting of a photosensitive charge-generation layer (CGL) and a phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for producing clear images with a high resolution of 600 dots per inch.

Transparent organic upconversion devices for near-infrared sensing.

Transparent organic upconversion devices are shown in a night-vision demonstration of a real object under near-infrared (NIR) illumination in the dark. An extraordinarily high current gain - reflecting the on-off switching effect - greater than 15 000 at a driving voltage of 3 V is demonstrated, indicating the high sensitivity to NIR light and potential of using the proposed upconverter in practical applications. A maximum luminance exceeding 1500 cd m(-2) at 7 V is achieved.

LAC2 encoding a secreted laccase is involved in appressorial melanization and conidial pigmentation in Colletotrichum orbiculare.

Both Colletotrichum and Magnaporthe spp. develop appressoria pigmented with melanin, which is essential for fungal pathogenicity. 1,8-Dihydroxynaphthalene (1,8-DHN) is believed to be polymerized to yield melanin around the appresorial cell wall through the oxidative activity of laccases.

Clinical utility of 18F-FDG PET parameters in patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: predictive role for different survival endpoints and impact on prognostic stratification.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic impact of different 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET) parameters in patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Patients And Methods: A total of 196 patients with primary stage III-IVb NPC were included in the study. The following parameters derived from pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET were determined: metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of the primary tumor, maximal standardized uptake value of the primary tumor and the neck lymph nodes.

[Determination of trace chromium(VI) by catalytic spectrofluorimetry using pyronine Y-H2O2-Cr(VI) system].

A simple and highly sensitive new kinetic catalytic fluorimetric method was proposed for the determination of trace chromium (VI), based on the catalytic effect of trace amounts of chromium (VI) on the oxidation of Pyronine Y by hydrogen peroxide in acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer medium leading to a decrease in the fluorescence intensity. The optimum conditions and kinetic properties of the catalytic reaction were also studied. The apparent activation energy and the apparent rate constant are 159.

Analysis of protoberberine alkaloids in several herbal drugs and related medicinal preparations by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis.

A simple, rapid, reproducible, and universal non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis method has been developed for the separation and determination of three major active protoberberine alkaloids including berberine, palmatine, and jatrorrhizine within 7 min. The effects of the concentrations of acetic acid and electrolyte, the ratio of organic solvent, and the applied voltage on the separation were investigated. The optimum running buffer was composed of 50 mM ammonium acetate, 0.