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MYB-related transcription factors are known to regulate different branches of flavonoid metabolism in plants and are believed to play wider roles in the regulation of phenylpropanoid metabolism in general. Here, we demonstrate that overexpression of two MYB genes from Antirrhinum represses phenolic acid metabolism and lignin biosynthesis in transgenic tobacco plants. The inhibition of this branch of phenylpropanoid metabolism appears to be specific to AmMYB308 and AmMYB330, suggesting that they recognize their normal target genes in these transgenic plants. Experiments with yeast indicate that AmMYB308 can act as a very weak transcriptional activator so that overexpression may competitively inhibit the activity of stronger activators recognizing the same target motifs. The effects of the transcription factors on inhibition of phenolic acid metabolism resulted in complex modifications of the growth and development of the transgenic plants. The inhibition of monolignol production resulted in plants with at least 17% less lignin in their vascular tissue. This reduction is of importance when designing strategies for the genetic modification of woody crops

•In the cohort Dama 15% of women has some degree of depression and 485% has some degree of anxiety.•Younger women suffer more anxiety. In contrast, the rate of depression is lowest in younger women (<50 years).•Low emotional support and low social network are the risk factor to be more symptoms of some mental disorders.•The social class and employment status are the risk factors to be more symptoms of some mental disorders.•Women with relapse are more probability to be more symptoms of some mental disorders. Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health pathologies among women with breast cancer. Social, clinical and contextual variables may influence emotional stress among women with breast cancer. The aim of this work is to study anxiety and depression in a cohort of women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2003 and 2013 in Barcelona. We evaluate social and clinical determinants. We performed a mixed cohort study (prospective and retrospective) using a convenience sample of women diagnosed with breast cancer. The information sources were the Hospital Anxiety and Depression questionnaire and hospital medical records. Dependent variables were anxiety and depression; independent variables were social class, age, employment status, tumour stage at diagnosis, time since diagnosis, social network and social support. We performed a descriptive analysis, a bivariate analysis, and a multivariate logistic regression analysis. A total of 1086 (48.6%) women had some degree of anxiety-related problem. As for depression. In the case of depression, 225 (15%) women had some degree of depression-related problem. Low emotional support and social isolation were clear risk factors for having more anxiety and depression. Low social class was also a risk factor, and age also played a role. Our results show that women long period of cancer survival have high prevalences of anxiety than depression, and this prevalence of anxiety is higher than the general population. In addition, we found inequalities between social classes and the isolation and social support are worse too in low social class.

Spin waves, the collective excitations of spins, can emerge as nonlinear solitons at the nanoscale when excited by an electrical current from a nanocontact. These solitons are expected to have essentially cylindrical symmetry (that is, s -like), but no direct experimental observation exists to confirm this picture. Using a high-sensitivity time-resolved magnetic X-ray microscopy with 50 ps temporal resolution and 35 nm spatial resolution, we are able to create a real-space spin-wave movie and observe the emergence of a localized soliton with a nodal line, that is, with p -like symmetry. Micromagnetic simulations explain the measurements and reveal that the symmetry of the soliton can be controlled by magnetic fields. Our results broaden the understanding of spin-wave dynamics at the nanoscale, with implications for the design of magnetic nanodevices. Injecting spin-polarized current into a ferromagnetic thin film via a nanocontact is expected to generate a radially-symmetric spin wave soliton. Here, the authors use time-resolved x-ray microscopy and micromagnetic simulations to demonstrate the occurrence of p -like symmetry associated with non-uniform magnetic fields in the nanocontact region.

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most prolonged discomforts suffered by people who have had cancer. Seventy-eight to ninety-six percent of cancer patients experience fatigue, especially while undergoing treatment. CRF is related to insomnia, anxiety, depression, and also varies depending on age. However, little is known about the factors contributing to CRF and better understanding of determinants of CRF makes it easier to identify early patients at risk and in designing intervention planning. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of precipitating factors (diagnosis of breast cancer and other clinical aspects) and perpetuating factors (social network, quality of life, mental disorders) on the presence of chronic fatigue in women from our cultural context, by social class each other determinants. Methods It was carried out a mixed cohort study (prospective and retrospective) using a convenience sample of women diagnosed with breast cancer. The information sources were data from the Brief Fatigue Inventory questionnaire and hospital medical records. The dependent variable was fatigue and the independent variables were age, social class, time since diagnoses, cohabitation, comorbidity, relapse, body mass index, mental health (anxiety and depression), social network, social support, and quality of life. Results Seventy-two percent of the women in the DAMA cohort reported moderate to severe fatigue. Risk of suffering from severe fatigue was greatest among individuals with low social class, those aged under 50 years, those with chronic disorders who had relapsed, and those with symptoms of anxiety and depression. In our study, CRF did not appear to be related to the stage of the cancer at diagnosis, or to the time since diagnosis. Conclusions CRF is an element that the professionals responsible for the control and monitoring of women should take into account as another element to be taken into consideration.

We consider the generalized evolution of compact level sets by functions of their normal vectors and second fundamental forms on a Riemannian manifold M . The level sets of a function evolve in such a way whenever u solves an equation u t  +  F ( Du , D 2 u ) = 0, for some real function F satisfying a geometric condition. We show existence and uniqueness of viscosity solutions to this equation under the assumptions that M has nonnegative curvature, F is continuous off { Du  = 0}, (degenerate) elliptic, and locally invariant by parallel translation. We then prove that this approach is geometrically consistent, hence it allows to define a generalized evolution of level sets by very general, singular functions of their curvatures. For instance, these assumptions on F are satisfied when F is given by the evolutions of level sets by their mean curvature (even in arbitrary codimension) or by their positive Gaussian curvature. We also prove that the generalized evolution is consistent with the classical motion by the corresponding function of the curvature, whenever the latter exists. When M is not of nonnegative curvature, the same results hold if one additionally requires that F is uniformly continuous with respect to D 2 u . Finally we give some counterexamples showing that several well known properties of the evolutions in are no longer true when M has negative sectional curvature.

Tomato transformation and regeneration were analysed and optimized. Cotyledon explants from Lycopersicon esculentum cv. UC82B, were infected by Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 harbouring the neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) reporter gene. The effects of phenolic compounds, vitamins and growth regulators on plant transformation and regeneration were studied. Increasing the vitamin thiamine concentration from 0.1 mg l-1 in standard medium to 0.4 mg l-1 decreased the chlorophyll lost that accompanied the expansion of necrotic areas in cotyledon explants. Optimal shoot regeneration rate was obtained with a balanced concentration of 0.5 mg l-1 auxin indolelacetic acid (IAA) and 0.5 mg l-1 cytokinin zeatin riboside. Finally, when the phenolic acetosyringone was present in the co-culture medium at 200 micromolar, confirmed transgenic lines reached 50% of antibiotic resistant shoots. Under the above conditions, the transformation efficiency reached 12.5%.

Plants, unlike animals, can use either ornithine decarboxylase or arginine decarboxylase (ADC) to produce the polyamine precursor putrescine. Lack of knowledge of the exact cellular and subcellular location of these enzymes has been one of the main obstacles to our understanding of the biological role of polyamines in plants. We have generated polyclonal antibodies to oat (Avena sativa L.) ADC to study the spatial distribution and subcellular localization of ADC protein in different oat tissues. By immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry, we show that ADC is organ specific. By cell fractionation and immunoblotting, we show that ADC is localized in chloroplasts associated with the thylakoid membrane. The results also show that increased levels of ADC protein are correlated with high levels of ADC activity and putrescine in osmotically stressed oat leaves. A model of compartmentalization for the arginine pathway and putrescine biosynthesis in active photosynthetic tissues has been proposed. In the context of endosymbiote-driven metabolic evolution in plants, the location of ADC in the chloroplast compartment may have major evolutionary significance, since it explains (a) why plants can use two alternative pathways for putrescine biosynthesis and (b) why animals do not possess ADC

Control of magnetism through voltage-driven ionic processes (i.e., magneto-ionics) holds potential for next-generation memories and computing. This stems from its non-volatility, flexibility in adjusting the magnitude and speed of magnetic modulation, and energy efficiency. Since magneto-ionics depends on factors like ionic radius and electronegativity, identifying alternative mobile ions is crucial to embrace new phenomena and applications. Here, the feasibility of C as a prospective magneto-ionic ion is investigated in a Fe-C system by electrolyte gating. In contrast to most magneto-ionic systems, Fe-C presents a reversible dual-ion mechanism: Fe and C act as cation and anion, respectively, moving uniformly in opposite directions under an applied electric field. This leads to a significant increase in saturation magnetization ( > 5-fold) with magneto-ionic rates larger than 1 emu·cm ·s , and a 25-fold increase in coercivity. Since carbides exhibit minimal cytotoxicity, this introduces a biocompatible dimension to magneto-ionics, paving the way for the convergence of spintronics and biotechnology.

IntroductionSince 2000 Digital Mammography (DM) has been commercially available and implemented in many breast cancer screening programs. Although available information suggests that differences, if exist, are low, complete evaluation of DM is needed to perform a more accurate balance of risks and benefits of these programs. Our purpose was to compare tumour characteristics between cancers detected with Screen-Film Mammography (SFM) and DM, and to evaluate changes on positive predictive values (PPVs), for further assessments, for invasive procedures and for different radiological patterns in recalled women.Methods242 838 screening mammograms (171 191 SFM and 71 647 DM) from 103 613 women aged 45–69, performed in four population-based breast cancer screening programs in Spain, were included. Tumour characteristics of each group were compared, as well as PPVs among recalled women and according radiological patterns.ResultsIn first and successive screenings percentages of DCIS, although not significant, were higher in DM group: 17.6% vs 13.3% (p=0.580) and 19.6% vs 13.5% (p=0.115), respectively. For masses, asymmetries and calcifications PPVs were higher in DM group, being statistically significant in masses (5.3% vs 3.9%; proportion ratio: 1.37 95% CI 1.08 to 1.72). Among cancers detected by calcifications, the percentage of DCIS was higher in DM group, being nearly significant (60.3% vs 46.4%, p=0.060).ConclusionPPVs were higher when DM is used, both for further assessments and for invasive procedures, with similar cancer detection rates and without statistically significant differences on tumour characteristics. Most relevant improvements on PPVs were detected for radiological patterns of masses.