Modern Technologies for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Salt-affected Soils and Poor-quality Waters

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Poor Quality ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Salt Affected Soils ◽  
Modern Technologies

Food-o-science Pseudoscience: The Weapons and Tactics in the War on Crop Biotechnology

Pseudoscience ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Folta
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Improvement ◽  
Recombinant Dna ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Human History ◽  
Recombinant Dna Technology ◽  
Genetic Technologies ◽  
Crop Biotechnology ◽  
Corporate Trust ◽  
Modern Technologies

Humans crave new technology in communications, medicine, electronics, and transportation, but show reserve when new technology touches food. While the industrialized world enjoys the safest and most abundant food supply in human history, the same consumers voice concern about that same bounty. This problem is multi-faceted, with origins in a lack of corporate trust, appeals to nature, an internet filled with poor-quality information, and whims of affluent consumers that spend a small percentage of their income on food. Human history has been a perennial battle against food scarcity and under-nutrition. Crop domestication and the emergence of agriculture changed that. Today’s modern technologies, led by plant genetic improvement, have provided sustained food security. Some of these technologies implement recombinant DNA technology, commonly known as genetic engineering. These new genetic technologies allow farmers to produce record yields with fewer impacts on the environment. However, these same technologies are often maligned and misrepresented by a well-funded and deceptive movement that uses soft scientific claims, misrepresentation of the literature, manufactured risk, fear, and blatant misinformation to promote their cause. Here this contemporary food war is explained, an unfortunate fight playing out at the intersection of science and food, with impacts on farmers, the environment, consumers and the poverty stricken.

SHM System Integration and Supporting Algorithms

2008 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 386-394
Author(s):  
Akira Mita
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
System Integration ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Smart Sensor ◽  
Urban Structures ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Enormous Amount ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Building Engineering ◽  
Modern Technologies

Sustainability of urban structures is dependent on quantitative and reliable information of their conditions, such as levels of deterioration and safety. The structural health monitoring (SHM) system has been extensively studied to acquire the health data and provide information. The SHM requires modern technologies to extract the relevant information relevant to the health of a structure from the enormous amount of data gathered by the system. In this paper, integral components of the SHM systems are presented which have been developed and studied in our laboratory for several years. They include a smart sensor network for data acquisition and a database server for data storage and management together with diagnosis and prognosis applications. This paper aims to introduce the concept of the integrated SHM system and the related technologies. Sensors and networks, however, can be extended to more novel roles for civil and building engineering applications, such as detecting and recording the histories of environmental conditions and activities of the residents. Among many potential applications, we are particularly interested in using robots as moving sensors to gather information in living spaces. The information obtained by robotic sensors is used to record any activities in the living spaces as “genes”, to transform the environment and its “genes”, and to pass on selected information to future “generations” of living spaces. We call this concept “biofication of living spaces.” We are extensively studying to evolve the concept to be applied to real buildings.

scholarly journals Diagnosis and Prognosis of Prostate Cancer from Circulating Matrix Metalloproteinases and Inhibitors

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Khalil El-Chaer ◽  
Clayton Franco Moraes ◽  
Otávio Toledo Nóbrega
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Matrix Metalloproteinases ◽  
Specific Antigen ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Precise Diagnosis ◽  
New Biomarkers

Although prostate cancer (PCa) is the sixth most common type of neoplasm in the world and the second in prevalence among men (10% of all cases), there is shortage of studies focused on primary prevention of the disorder as well as little understanding on its pathophysiology. Currently, the PCa screening tools are the prostate specific antigen (PSA) dosage conjugated to rectal examination and confirmed by prostate biopsy. Despite the name, the PSA presents reduced specificity, being necessary the identification of new biomarkers that allow an earlier and more precise diagnosis and even better prognosis. Several studies have associated matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) to PCa tumorigenesis and metastasis. Most of the studies so far have been carried out by investigating in situ expression of the metalloproteinases, either by transcriptional measures or by immunohistochemistry with biopsy or postoperative tissue. Investigations in human plasma and serum are scarce, and a bibliographical search resulted in 17 studies which are presented and interpreted herein. This narrative review discusses their settings and findings along with aspects related to circulating metalloproteinases as potential biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis of the prostatic malignancy, expressing the authors' reticent view on their applicability due to the poor quality of evidence available.

Morphologic differences between abdominal and inguinal testes in stallions

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 820-821
Author(s):  
F. Al-Bagdadi ◽  
D. Hoyt ◽  
P. Karns ◽  
G. Martin ◽  
M. Memon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carcinoma Cells ◽  
Genital System ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Male Genital System ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Hormone Imbalance ◽  
Made In ◽  
Male Genital

The most frequently occuring abnormality of the male genital system in mammals is the failure of one or both testes to descend into the scrotum. The reasons for abdominal or inguinal retention of testes could be anatomic malformation, faulty development or hormone imbalance.Cryptorchidism has been associated with either greatly reduced or absent spermatogenesis (Kaueakami et al, 1984), and being a source of neoplasia. According to Stick (1980), germinal carcinoma cells have been believed to be the cause of teratomas in equine cryptorchid testicles. Neoplasia has been reported in descended testes of unilateral cryptorchid patients (Martin et al, 1981).No distinction has been made in relating the problem of cryptorchid testes to inguinal or abdominal retention. The purpose of this study is to record the morphological differences between inguinal and abdominal cryptorchid testes as an aid in diagnosis and prognosis.

The miR-21 potential of serving as a biomarker for liver diseases in clinical practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 2295-2305
Author(s):  
Jiawei Zhang ◽  
Dandan Li ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Peng Gao ◽  
Rongxue Peng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Liver Diseases ◽  
Hepatic Disease ◽  
Noninvasive Detection ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Expected Performance ◽  
Potential Biomarker ◽  
Disease Condition ◽  
Complex Regulatory Network

The role of miR-21 in the pathogenesis of various liver diseases, together with the possibility of detecting microRNA in the circulation, makes miR-21 a potential biomarker for noninvasive detection. In this review, we summarize the potential utility of extracellular miR-21 in the clinical management of hepatic disease patients and compared it with the current clinical practice. MiR-21 shows screening and prognostic value for liver cancer. In liver cirrhosis, miR-21 may serve as a biomarker for the differentiating diagnosis and prognosis. MiR-21 is also a potential biomarker for the severity of hepatitis. We elucidate the disease condition under which miR-21 testing can reach the expected performance. Though miR-21 is a key regulator of liver diseases, microRNAs coordinate with each other in the complex regulatory network. As a result, the performance of miR-21 is better when combined with other microRNAs or classical biomarkers under certain clinical circumstances.

Parasite defense mechanisms in bees: behavior, immunity, antimicrobials, and symbionts

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison E. Fowler ◽  
Rebecca E. Irwin ◽  
Lynn S. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Immune Priming ◽  
Social Bees ◽  
Bee Health ◽  
Landscape Scales ◽  
And Function ◽  
Solitary Species

Parasites are linked to the decline of some bee populations; thus, understanding defense mechanisms has important implications for bee health. Recent advances have improved our understanding of factors mediating bee health ranging from molecular to landscape scales, but often as disparate literatures. Here, we bring together these fields and summarize our current understanding of bee defense mechanisms including immunity, immunization, and transgenerational immune priming in social and solitary species. Additionally, the characterization of microbial diversity and function in some bee taxa has shed light on the importance of microbes for bee health, but we lack information that links microbial communities to parasite infection in most bee species. Studies are beginning to identify how bee defense mechanisms are affected by stressors such as poor-quality diets and pesticides, but further research on this topic is needed. We discuss how integrating research on host traits, microbial partners, and nutrition, as well as improving our knowledge base on wild and semi-social bees, will help inform future research, conservation efforts, and management.

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