Treatment of Bone Marrow Cancer Based on Model Predictive Control

Bone marrow is a spongy tissue that contains stem cells that are found inside some bones, including the hip and femur. Bone marrow cancer is a type of cancer that is caused by stem cells that make up the blood cells in the bone marrow. Sometimes these cells grow too fast or abnormally, which is called bone marrow cancer. Bone tissue cells are mainly composed of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Osteoblast cells constantly build new bone throughout the life of each bone, and other cells called osteoclasts constantly absorb pieces of bone, so the bone is constantly being renewed. In this paper, mathematical models of tumors, the effect of the body on the drug, and the drug on the body are introduced, and then the appropriate dose of the drug to reduce tumor density is calculated using the model predictive control (MPC) algorithm. To obtain an adaptive MPC strategy, the extended least squares (ELS) method developed to learn the parameters of the tumor growth model is used. Finally, the simulation in MATLAB, assuming the model is correct, shows that the tumor is gone, and the bone mass improves over a period of time. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for the treatment of bone marrow cancer.

Silene thymifolia Sibth. et Sm. (Caryophyllaceae) – A vulnerable species in Romania: Anatomical aspects of vegetative organs

Silene thymifolia (Caryophyllaceae) is considered a rare, near-threatened species in Romania, growing only on Black Sea coastal dunes. Anatomical aspects of the root, stem and leaf of this species are presented in this study. Root, stem and leaves were analysed by brightfield microscopy, with specific staining. The root in cross section exhibited a secondary structure, generated by the activity of phellogen, and vascular cambium, with thick cork, continuous secondary xylem rings. no pith rays, but with cortical air lacunes. The stem had a primary structure with a number of collateral vascular bundles arranged on a single circle, with thick cortical schlerenchymal layers and oxalate crystals in pith cells. The epidermis showed stomata and glandular hairs. The leaf was amphystomatic leaf, with a heterogeneous mesophyll (equifacial type) and embedded vascular bundles, with a rounded mid rib surrounded by a parenchyma sheath. The spongy tissue has some large intercellular air spaces with druses. The mechanical tissue is well developed in the root and stem and poorly developed, represented by few collenchyma elements in the mesophyll, being represented by a continuous schlerenchyma fibers band present in root and stem and collenchyma in the leaf. The secretory histological elements were represented by epidermal glandular hairs and oxaliferous cells (druses) present in stem and leaf.

New perspective for evaluating the main Camellia oleifera cultivars in China

To assess the adaptability of Camellia oleifera for introduction in new growth locations, this study evaluated 10 representative C. oleifera cultivars from the main areas in China where this oil-producing evergreen crop is grown. Cluster analysis, correlation analysis, and membership function analysis were used to evaluate various indices of the selected C. oleifera cultivars, including flowering phenology, cold tolerance, leaf structure, pollen characteristics, and pollen viability. The correlation analysis identified the full blossoming time, leaf palisade and spongy tissue thickness, pollen deformity rate, and pollen activity as key indices for determining the adaptability of the cultivars to new areas. The membership function analysis of the 10 C. oleifera cultivars revealed the following order of adaptability: ‘XLC25’ > ‘Changlin4hao’ > ‘Ganzhouyou8hao’ > ‘Ganzhouyou6hao’ > ‘Tiechengyihao’ > ‘Eyou465’ > ‘XLC10’ > ‘Changlin3hao’ > ‘Changlin18hao’ > ‘QY235.’ When introducing C. oleifera cultivars to new regions, the higher-ranked cultivars are more likely to be successful. The results of this study may provide a new direction for the comprehensive assessment of plant introduction and domestication potential, i.e., the assessment of the vegetative and reproductive growth, adversity resistance, and blossoming time of plants.

Metabolomic Dynamics Reveals Oxidative Stress in Spongy Tissue Disorder During Ripening of Mangifera indica L. Fruit

Spongy tissue disorder, a mesocarp specific malady, severely affects the flavor and pulp characters of Alphonso mango fruit reducing its consumer acceptability. Here, we investigated comparative metabolomic changes that occur during ripening in healthy and spongy tissue-affected fruits using high resolution mass spectrometric analysis. During the spongy tissue formation, 46 metabolites were identified to be differentially accumulated. These putative metabolites belong to various primary and secondary metabolic pathways potentially involved in maintaining the quality of the fruit. Analysis revealed metabolic variations in tricarboxylic acid cycle and gamma amino butyric acid shunt generating reactive oxygen species, which causes stressed conditions inside the mesocarp. Further, reduced levels of antioxidants and enzymes dissipating reactive oxygen species in mesocarp deteriorate the fruit physiology. This oxidative stress all along affects the level of amino acids, sugars and enzymes responsible for flavor generation in the fruit. Our results provide metabolic insights into spongy tissue development in ripening Alphonso mango fruit.

COMPARISON OF THE INFLUENCE OF STANDARDIZATION AND NORMALIZATION OF DATA ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPONGY TISSUE TEXTURE CLASSIFICATION

The aim of this article was to compare the influence of the data pre-processing methods – normalization and standardization – on the results of the classification of spongy tissue images. Four hundred CT images of the spine (L1 vertebra) were used for the analysis. The images were obtained from fifty healthy patients and fifty patients with diagnosed with osteoporosis. The samples of tissue (50×50 pixels) were subjected to a texture analysis to obtain descriptors of features based on a histogram of grey levels, gradient, run length matrix, co-occurrence matrix, autoregressive model and wavelet transform. The obtained results were set in the importance ranking (from the most important to the least important), and the first fifty features were used for further experiments. These data were normalized and standardized and then classified using five different methods: naive Bayes classifier, support vector machine, multilayer perceptrons, random forest and classification via regression. The best results were obtained for standardized data and classified by using multilayer perceptrons. This algorithm allowed for obtaining high accuracy of classification at the level of 94.25%.

Application of Azoxystrobin Fungicide Improves Drought Tolerance in Tomato, via Enhancing Physio-Biochemical and Anatomical Feature

To investigate whether the fungicide Azoxystrobin improves the potential to maintain physio-biochemical functions under drought, tomato plants were applied with Azoxystrobin under either well-watered and deficit irrigation conditions. Drought-stressed tomato plants showed significant reductions in most tested parameters of physiology [cell membrane stability (CMS), relative water content (RWC), relative water loss (RWL) and chlorophylls], growth attributes and leaflet and main stem anatomical features, while exhibited increases in contents of proline and total phenols, activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), fresh (FW) and dry (DW) weights of roots, and leaflet spongy tissue thickness compared to well-watered control plants. Under full irrigation, Azoxystrobin treatment significantly increased RWC and chlorophyll content, POD and PPO activities, root DW, number of fruits per plant and many features of leaflet and main stem, while significantly decreased CMS and RWL, root, shoot and plant lengths, shoot and plant FW, and stem xylem tissue thickness compared to the control plants sprayed with water. However, Azoxystrobin treatment ameliorated drought stress in tomato plants and significantly increased CMS and free proline content, activities of CAT, POD and PPO, and contents of free and total phenols, and root DW and number of fruits per plant, in addition to spongy tissue thickness of leaflet, but not affected chlorophylls and carotenoids contents, root FW, plant DW and most of anatomical features compared to the stressed plants without Azoxystrobin treatment. These results support that Azoxystrobin foliar application may have a positive effect on well-watered and drought-stressed tomato plants.