Sulfur fertilization and inoculation of soybean with Azospirillum brasilense and Bradyrhizobium spp. can improve grain yield and quality.

The success of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in soybean depends on two crucial factors, viz., seed inoculation and soil nutritional balance. The macronutrient sulfur (S) is vital to the formation of ferredoxin, a common source of electrons that controls the proper functioning of the subunits of the enzyme nitrogenase, responsible for the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen (N) to ammonia (NH).

Preinoculation of Soybean Seeds Treated with Agrichemicals up to 30 Days before Sowing: Technological Innovation for Large-Scale Agriculture.

The cultivation of soybean in Brazil experienced an expressive growth in the last decades. Soybean is highly demanding on nitrogen (N) that must come from fertilizers or from biological fixation. The N supply to the soybean crop in Brazil relies on the inoculation with elite strains of and , which are able to fulfill the crop's N requirements and enrich the soil for the following crop.

Validation of improved vessel-specific leads (VSLs) for detecting acute myocardial ischemia.

Background: Existing criteria recommended by ACC/ESC for identifying patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) from the 12-lead ECG perform with high specificity (SP), but low sensitivity (SE). In our previous studies, we found that the SE of ischemia detection can be markedly improved without any loss of SP by calculating, from the 12-lead ECG, ST deviation in 3 "optimal" vessel-specific leads (VSLs). Our original VSLs, based on ΔST body-surface potential maps (BSPMs), have been modified by using the more appropriate J-point BSPMs at peak ischemia (without subtraction of pre-occlusion distributions).

Microvascular obstruction remains a portent of adverse remodeling in optimally treated patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction after acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Microvascular obstruction (MO) is associated with large acute myocardial infarction and lower left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and predicts greater remodeling, but whether this effect is abolished by contemporary antiremodeling therapies is subject to debate. We examined the influence of several infarct characteristics, including MO, on LV remodeling in an optimally treated post-acute myocardial infarction cohort, using contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance.

Methods And Results: One hundred patients (mean age, 58.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1: a dichotomous role in cardiac remodeling following acute myocardial infarction in man?

Introduction: Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is elevated after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and potentiates left ventricular (LV) remodeling in murine models of AMI. We examined the relationships between serum MCP-1, change in LV function and biomarkers related to remodeling in a cohort of AMI patients.

Methods: Serum MCP-1 concentrations were measured in 100 patients (age 58.

Comparison of serial measurements of infarct size and left ventricular ejection fraction by contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and electrocardiographic QRS scoring in reperfused anterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

Background: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is a powerful prognostic marker after acute myocardial infarction and is dependent on infarct magnitude. Contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (ceCMR) represents the current criterion standard means of LVEF and infarct size measurement. Infarct size and LVEF can be estimated from the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) using the Selvester QRS score.

Comparison of the correlation of the Selvester QRS scoring system with cardiac contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging-measured acute myocardial infarct size in patients with and without thrombolytic therapy.

Background: After an acute myocardial infarction (MI), it is important to define the infarct size because it is related to mortality and morbidity. The Selvester QRS Score is an electrocardiographic (ECG) method that has been developed for estimating MI size. It has been shown to correlate well with postmortem anatomically measured sizes of single MI in patients who did not receive thrombolytic therapy.

EASI-Derived vs standard 12-lead electrocardiogram for Selvester QRS score estimations of chronic myocardial infarct size, using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging as gold standard.

Background: The size of myocardial infarction (MI) is of significance for the prognosis. Selvester scores might be valuable for this estimation.

Objective: To compare the differences in Selvester scores for chronic MI provided from standard and EASI-derived 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) and to compare these scores to the MI size measured by delayed-enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI).

Cardiac and extracardiac abnormalities detected by cardiac magnetic resonance in a post-myocardial infarction cohort.

Objectives: All patients should undergo formal assessment of ventricular function following acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is not widely used as a test before discharge in AMI patients. This study sought to determine the impact of contrast-enhanced CMR (ceCMR) scanning before discharge in addition to standard transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) on patient care following AMI.

ST-segment deviation analysis of the admission 12-lead electrocardiogram as an aid to early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction with a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging gold standard.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to validate existing 12-lead electrocardiographic (ECG) ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) criteria in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and the application of similar ST-segment depression (STEMI-equivalent) criteria with contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (ceMRI) as the diagnostic gold standard.

Background: The admission ECG is the cornerstone in the diagnosis of AMI, and ceMRI is a new diagnostic gold standard that can be used to validate existing and novel 12-lead ECG criteria.

Methods: One hundred fifty-one consecutive patients with their first hospital admission for chest pain underwent ceMRI.

The relationship between electrical axis by 12-lead electrocardiogram and anatomical axis of the heart by cardiac magnetic resonance in healthy subjects.

Background: The traditional assumption has been that there is a close relationship between the electrical and anatomical axes of the heart. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the electrical and anatomical axes of the heart, in both the frontal and transverse planes, in healthy subjects.

Methods: Ninety-four healthy volunteers (48 men, 46 women; age 21-82 years) were studied by cardiac magnetic resonance and 12-lead electrocardiogram.

Determination of left ventricular long-axis orientation using MRI: changes during the respiratory and cardiac cycles in normal and diseased subjects.

Background: It has previously been shown that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to accurately determine left ventricular (LV) long-axis orientation in healthy individuals. However, the inter- and intra-observer variability in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and chronic heart failure (CHF) has not been explored. Furthermore, the changes in LV long-axis orientation because of respiration and during the cardiac cycle remain to be determined.

Contrast enhanced-cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Aims: To determine the presence and extent of delayed contrast enhancement (DCE) in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PHT) using contrast enhanced-cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (ce-CMR).

Methods And Results: Twenty-five patients with PHT underwent ce-CMR and right heart catheterization. Right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) volumes, ejection fraction, mass, and DCE mass were determined with ce-CMR.

Matrix metalloproteinase-1 promoter polymorphisms and changes in left ventricular volume following acute myocardial infarction.

The relation between matrix metalloproteinase-1 promoter genotype and remodeling was studied in 42 patients after their first acute myocardial infarctions. Patients possessing 2 GG alleles were at increased risk for remodeling compared with homozygotes for the G allele and heterozygotes possessing 1 G and 1 GG allele.