The evolution of plant metabolic diversity is largely driven by gene duplication and ensuing sub-functionalization and/or neo-functionalization to generate new enzymatic activities. However, it is not clear whether the transcription factors (TFs) regulating these new enzyme encoding genes were required to co-evolve with these genes in a similar fashion or if these new genes can be captured by e...

Aortic stenosis (AS) and aortic incompetence (AI) are common aortic valve diseases. Both may deteriorate into irreversible myocardial dysfunction and will increase the risk of sudden death. In this study, we aimed to investigate the early variation trend of left ventricular function by three-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (3D-STE) in the patients who underwent cardiac surgeries f...

BACKGROUND Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) bloodstream infections (BSIs) are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE To determine the hospital costs and length of stay attributable to VRE BSI and vancomycin-sensitive Enterococcus (VSE) BSI and the independent effect of vancomycin resistance on hospital costs. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted of...

Gray leaf spot [GLS, causal agent Cercospora zeae-maydis (Tehon and E. Y. Daniels)] is an important fungal disease of maize in the U.S. and worldwide. The IBM population, an advanced intercross recombinant inbred line population derived from a cross between the maize lines Mo17 (resistant) and B73 (susceptible), was evaluated in three environments (Andrews, NC in 2005, 2006, and 2007) for resis...

A time domain simulation algorithm for the investigation of propagation properties of nonlinear Surface-PlasmonPolaritons (SPP) mode through gallium lanthanum sulphide (GLS) layer in Ag-GLS-Ag waveguide is presented. GLS, a semiconducting chalcogenide glass is known as ultrafast nonlinear device due to their high material non-linearity with strong confinement and dispersion. The time domain sim...

BACKGROUND We sought to assess the utility of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV-GLS) in predicting mortality in moderate to severe and paradoxical severe aortic stenosis (AS) patients with preserved ejection fraction. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 395 AS patients (70 ± 14 years, 57% men) with aortic valve area <1.3 cm(2) evaluated between January to June 2008 (excluding severe ...

AIMS To assess the capacity of global longitudinal strain (GLS) in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) to (i) detect the subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction [LV ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥50% patients]; (ii) predict all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) (all patients), and (iii) provide incremental prognostic information over current risk markers. METHODS AND RES...

BACKGROUND Global longitudinal systolic strain (GLS) is often reduced in aortic stenosis despite normal ejection fraction. The importance of reduced preoperative GLS on long-term outcome after aortic valve replacement is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 125 patients with severe aortic stenosis and ejection fraction >40% scheduled for aortic valve replacement were evaluated preoperative...

Geodesic least-squares regression (GLS) is a parametric regression technique that has recently been developed for handling cases with significant and complex uncertainty structures. It has been shown to perform well in the presence of outliers and uncertainty in the regression model [1]. In this contribution, we analyze in detail the characteristics of the GLS method enabling this good performa...

As part of our ongoing investigation of the stenoendemic plants belonging to the Brassicaceae family, we report on the chemistry of Fibigia triquetra (DC.) Boiss. ex Prantl for the first time. Different plant parts (flower, leaf, stem, and seed) of F. triquetra were characterized and quantified for glucosinolates (GLs) according to the ISO 9167-1 EU official method based on the HPLC analysis of...