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The clinical outcomes of isocitrate dehydrogenase‐wild‐type (IDH‐wt) lower‐grade glioma (LGG) have been the subject of debate for some time. In this meta‐analysis, we aimed to assess the prognostic values of several known genetic markers (e.g. TERT promoter mutation, H3F3A mutation, CDKN2A loss) in this tumor group. Four electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Virtual Health Library, were searched for relevant articles. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for overall survival were calculated using a random‐effect model weighted by an inverse variance method. A total of 11 studies were finally selected from 2274 articles for meta‐analyses. Several genetic alterations were demonstrated to have a negative impact on prognosis of IDH‐wt LGGs, specifically TERT promoter mutation (HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.42–2.70), H3F3A mutation (HR, 3.21; 95% CI, 1.86–5.55) and EGFR amplification (HR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.02–2.74). However, CDKN loss, ATRX mutation and coexisting gain of chromosome 7/loss of chromosome 10 showed no clinical significance in this glioma entity. Our study results demonstrated that IDH‐wt LGGs are heterogeneous in clinical outcome and not all tumors have a poor prognosis. The presence of TERT promoter mutation, H3F3A mutation and EGFR amplification showed negative prognostic impacts in this tumor entity. These genetic events can be used to better stratify patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parasite fauna of Epinephelus coioides can be used as an indicator to assess different aquaculture systems. A total of 133 E. coioides were collected from fishermen (wild fish) and marine fish farms (net cages, pond farms) in the Gulf of Tonkin (Ha Long, Cat Ba and Nghia Hung), Vietnam in 2013 and 2014, and examined for the presence of protozoan and metazoan parasites. Different patterns of parasite infections were found. The monogenean Pseudorhabdosynochus spp. was predominant in the net cage system; and the protozoans Trichodina spp. and Cryptocaryon irritans were found exclusively in pond and net cage cultivation sites in Nghia Hung and Cat Ba. These three species were assessed in addition to seven further indicator species and two dominance indices, to visualize the potential of assessing different aquaculture systems in Vietnam. This suggests the use of former shrimp ponds for grouper cultivation, reducing the pressure to further extend net cage cultivation in already highly influenced mariculture regions in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freeze-drying has played an increasingly important role in the production of dehydrated foods. This article discusses the operating conditions of the prior freezing process of blueberry fruit to maintain the fruit aroma during the sublimation process. The properties of frozen fruit, such as ice crystal size, seem to depend on the freezing speed, leading to some aroma loss during the sublimation process. The temperature of the deep freezer was set at -20°C, -40°C, -60°C, or -80°C to determine the effects of changing the freezing speed of blueberries during prior freezing. Northern highbush blueberry cultivars Dixi and Elliott harvested in a university orchard (Tokyo, Japan) were used as the test material. The sublimation process of freeze-drying was done using a transparent vacuum desiccator connected to a vacuum pump through a vapor cooling trap under heating conditions provided by a far-infrared heater. Trapped vapors were analyzed with GC-MS to identify and quantify the aroma compounds of the blueberries, such as benzaldehyde. The change in the appearance of the freeze-dried blueberries following prior freezing at various speeds is also described. The amounts of typical volatile compounds, such as acetic acid, 2-hexanol, and 3-hexanol, decreased as the freezing speed increased. Most volatile aroma compounds could be preserved when blueberries were frozen rapidly in a deep freezer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of Cd at environmental concentrations (0-32 µg/L) on the green alga Parachlorella kessleri were investigated. At about 3 µg Cd/L, toxic effects of Cd are becoming evident, much lower than reported previously. At 8 µg/L and higher, pronounced adverse effects on growth, cell morphology, size, and physiological state are seen. Therefore, levels lower than 2 µg Cd/L should be employed to produce Cd-carrying algae for feeding experiments with organisms on the next trophic level, e.g. mussels, to avoid reduced food uptake. These findings also suggest that aquatic ecosystem conditions can be indirectly influenced via the impairment of the nutritional value of algae since they are the basic organisms of aquatic food chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of a high performance digital architecture for computing 2-D convolution, utilizing the quadrant symmetry of the kernels, is proposed in this paper. Pixels in the four quadrants of the kernel region, with respect to an image pixel, are considered simultaneously for computing the partial products of the convolution sum. A novel data handling strategy, to identify pixels to be fed to different processing elements, helps reduce the data storage requirements significantly in the circuitry. The systolic architecture employs parallel and pipelined processing and is able to produce one output every clock cycle. The new design resulted in, approximately, a 75% reduction in number of multipliers and a 50% reduction in the number of adders, when compared to the conventional systolic architecture. The proposed architecture design is capable of performing convolution operations for 57 1,024 x 1,024 frames, or 59.77 million outputs per second, in a Xilinx's Virtex 2v2000ff896-4 FPGA at maximum clock frequency of 59.77MHz. The error analysis performed in two image processing applications, namely noise filtering and edge detection, shows that the hardware implementation with the proposed design provides results similar to that of the software implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactions of the 936-species phages sk1, jj50, and 64 with the cell surface of Lactococcus lactis LM0230 were analyzed. Cell envelopes (walls + plasma membrane), cell wall, or plasma membrane from L. lactis ssp. lactis LM0230 each inactivated the phages in vitro. However, other 936-species phages kh and P008, which do not infect strain LM0230, were not inactivated by any of the subcellular fractions. Treating cell walls or plasma membrane with the cell wall hydrolase mutanolysin eliminated inactivation of phage sk1. This suggested that intact cell wall fragments were required for inactivation. A role for plasma membrane in phage sk1 inactivation was further investigated. Boiling, washing in 2 M KCl, 8 M urea, or 0.1 M Na2CO3pH 11, or treating the plasma membrane with proteases did not reduce adsorption or inactivation of phage. Adding lipoteichoic acid or antibodies to lipoteichoic acid did not reduce inactivation of phage in a mixture with membrane, suggesting that lipoteichoic acid was not involved. Inactivation by envelopes or cell wall correlated with ejection of DNA from the phage sk1 capsid. Although calcium is required for plaque formation, it was not required for adsorption, inactivation, or ejection of phage DNA by envelopes or cell wall. The results suggest that at least for phages sk1, jj50, and 64, adsorption and phage DNA injection into the host does not require a host membrane protein or lipoteichoic acid, and that cell wall components are sufficient for these initial steps of phage infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]