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Objective: Appendiceal neoplasms (ANs) are rare tumors that are often discovered incidentally during histopathological examinations. The increasing incidence of ANs is a critical issue in the non-operative management of acute appendicitis. This study aimed to document the temporal trends over a 12-year period by analyzing the clinical presentation, imaging findings, and histopathological features of ANs. Subjects and Methods: Health records of patients who underwent appendectomy from 2011 to 2022 were examined. Demographic and clinical data, laboratory results, imaging findings, and histopathological features were documented. The characteristics of both ANs and non-neoplastic cases were evaluated. Results: A total of 22,304 cases were identified, of which 330 (1.5%) were diagnosed with ANs. The odds ratio for ANs increased with age, with the highest odds ratio observed in patients aged 70 or older. Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis showed that age and appendiceal diameter were significant predictors of ANs. An optimal age cut-off point of 28.5 years was determined, yielding a sensitivity of 72% and a specificity of 64%. For appendiceal diameter, the optimal cut-off was found to be 9.5 mm, exhibiting a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 56%. Conclusion: Although the incidence of ANs remains relatively low, a steady increase has been observed over the past decade. The increasing rate of ANs raises concerns regarding non-surgical management options. The results of this study highlight the importance of considering ANs as a potential diagnosis in older patients and in patients with an appendix diameter greater than 9.5 mm. These findings may have implications for treatment and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flow field and heat transfer of an impinging swirling jet at low nozzle-to-plate distances have been investigated numerically for three different cases with six different turbulence models. The effects of Reynolds number (2100, 4100, 6100, 8100) and dimensionless nozzle-to-plate distance (H/D = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) on flow field and heat transfer of the swirling jet are studied parametrically. It is noted that the results of the cases employed exhibit sensitivity to the height of the computational domain defined on the impingement plate, particularly at low nozzle-to-plate distances. It is also seen that one of the cases used is in good agreement with the experimental results by employing Realizable k–ε turbulence model. Parametric analysis results show that the theoretical swirl number decreases with increasing Reynolds number at constant H/D and raises for H/D < 0.75. With the decrease in the Reynolds number from 8100 to 2100, although the H/D loses gradually effect on the heat transfer, H/D = 0.25 continues its effect. It is observed that the pressure peaks and the subatmospheric pressure on the impingement plate change with the nozzle-to-plate distance and Reynolds number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propylthiouracil (PTU)‑induced vasculitis is a rare antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody‑associated vasculitis involving small vessels. The patients are often present with constitutional symptoms such as skin rash, fever, sore throat, and joint pain, and rarely with systemic symptoms such as muscle pain, weakness, weight loss, conjunctival, and mucosal irritation. Early diagnosis with the help of clinical findings, laboratory and serological markers, discontinuation of PTU, and immunosuppressive treatments are beneficial. In thisstudy, a case of necrotizing vasculitis after PTU is presented, and the literature is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solubility of low-grade zinc ores with a selective leaching environmentally friendly reagent has become a focus of great interest since zinc and its compounds have found wide application. For this purpose, lactic acid was used to investigate the selective leaching kinetics of smithsonite ore obtained from Kayseri region. The effects of particle size (137.5-725 µm), acid concentration (0.5-5 M), solid/liquid ratio (0.5/250-3/250 g mL-1), stirring speed (500-800 rpm) and temperature (40-70 °C) parameters on the smithsonite dissolution rate were experimentally studied. The results obtained show that leaching of about 99.8% of zinc is achieved using 425 µm particle size at a reaction temperature of 70 °C for 45 min reaction time with 2 M lactic acid, the solid/liquid ratio of 1/250 g mL-1 and stirring speed of 600 rpm. The statistical analysis of the experimental data obtained from the parameters revealed that smithsonite dissolution was the surface reaction-controlled with an apparent activation energy of 53.62 kJ.moL-1. The kinetic model describing the process was found as 1-(1-X)1/3 =2.5 x105e -53.62/RT t. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Parasites and plant seeds may both be found in appendectomy specimens. Each plant seed has a different appearance and can thus exhibit wide variations under the microscope. Fragmented seeds may histologically mimic parasites. The differential diagnosis between seeds and parasites can be challenging in such cases. This study aimed to determine the incidence of parasites, seeds, and foreign bodies in appendectomy materials and highlight the most characteristic histopathological features associated with these structures. Material and Method: In this study, pathology slides of 9,480 patients, who underwent appendectomy between 2010 and 2021, were reviewed, and cases that contained parasites, seeds, or foreign bodies were identified. We reviewed the literature on seeds and parasites in appendectomy specimens. Results: Parasites were observed in 56 (0.6%) cases. Of these cases, 45 had Enterobius vermicularis (80%), and 11 had Taenia subspecies (20%). Plant seeds were observed in 47 cases (0.5%), and were macroscopically recognizable in 5 of them as olive, lemon, and cherry seeds. Parasites and seeds were usually observed in the lumen of appendix vermiformis, filled with abundant fecal materials. Conclusion: Seeds are seen in approximately 0.5% of the appendectomy specimens. Though rarely seen, the fragmented seed appearance may cause diagnostic difficulties. In this context, the key morphological features of parasites and plant seeds outlined in this study may be helpful in their differential diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We aimed to examine the safety and effectiveness of a posterior approach alone in the surgical treatment of sacral-presacral tumors. In addition, we investigate factors that determine the selection of a posterior approach alone. Materials and Methods: Patients with sacral-presacral tumors who underwent surgery in our institution between 2007 and 2019 were examined in this study. Data regarding patient age, gender, tumor size (>6 cm and <6 cm), tumor localization (below or above S1), tumor pathology (benign or malignant), surgical approach (anterior alone, posterior alone, or combined), and extent of resection were recorded. The Spearman's correlation analyses were conducted between surgical approach and tumor size, localization, and pathology. Factors influencing the extent of resection were also examined. Results: Complete tumor resection was achieved in 18 of 20 patients. A posterior approach alone was used in 16. No strong or significant relation was detected between surgical approach and tumor size (r = 0.218; P = 0.355). There was no strong or significant relationship between surgical approach and tumor localization (r = 0.145; P = 0.541) or tumor pathology (r = 0.250; P = 0.288). Tumor size, localization, and pathology were not independent factors that determined surgical approach. The only significant independent determining factor for incomplete resection was tumor pathology (r = 0.688; P = 0.001). Conclusion: A posterior approach is safe and effective in the surgical treatment of sacral-presacral tumors independent of tumor localization, size, or pathology and is a feasible first-line treatment option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new type of coronavirus disease, which has spread from Wuhan, China since the beginning of 2020 called COVID-19, has caused many deaths and cases in most countries and has reached a global pandemic scale. In addition to test kits, imaging techniques with X-rays used in lung patients have been frequently used in the detection of COVID-19 cases. In the proposed method, a novel approach based on a deep learning model named DeepCovNet was utilized to classify chest X-ray images containing COVID-19, normal (healthy), and pneumonia classes. The convolutional-autoencoder model, which had convolutional layers in encoder and decoder blocks, was trained by using the processed chest X-ray images from scratch for deep feature extraction. The distinctive features were selected with a novel and robust algorithm named SDAR from the deep feature set. In the classification stage, an SVM classifier with various kernel functions was used to evaluate the classification performance of the proposed method. Also, hyperparameters of the SVM classifier were optimized with the Bayesian algorithm for increasing classification accuracy. Specificity, sensitivity, precision, and F-score, were also used as performance metrics in addition to accuracy which was used as the main criterion. The proposed method with an accuracy of 99.75 outperformed the other approaches based on deep learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voice assistant devices, such as Google Home™ and Amazon Echo™, are at the forefront of natural voice interaction and natural language search through the removal of any graphical user interface (GUI). This user experience study is one of the first to compare information foraging using Google Home versus search behaviors using a traditional computer or desktop in a learning environment. We conducted research (N = 20) to investigate information foraging and retrieval behaviors of participants and measure query effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. Participants were separated into two distinct groups. The experimental group used the Google Home smart speaker to retrieve information for predefined question sets in the following categories: research, trivia, and math. The control group sought to answer the same question set using more traditional technologies including computers, tablets, cell phones, and calculators. The results show that participants with voice assistants found the correct answers almost two times faster for research and trivia questions and three times faster for math questions than participants using traditional technologies. User satisfaction also scores much higher with voice assistants than with traditional systems. Yet, despite these results, we found that privacy concerns, limited searchable databases, and voice-recognition challenges are all limiting factors to the adoption and widespread use of voice assistants. To reach the full promise of relative efficiency and user satisfaction favoring voice assistants over traditional systems, these weaknesses must be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women. Early diagnosis is very important in this disease. Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Ultrasound (US) are among the most important medical technologies used for early diagnosis. Diagnosis with US is less costly than diagnosis with MR but requires more experience. With the developing technology, automatic decision support systems using artificial intelligence have become extremely popular. At this point, in this study, an automatic diagnosis of breast cancer was tried to be made with a deep learning-based approach using US signals. Since the number of samples used in the study was not large, MobileNetV2, a pre-trained ESA model, was used for feature extraction. In the classification phase, the ensemble RUSBoosted Tree (ERBT) algorithm, which is a community classifier, was preferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipoblastoma is a rare benign tumor originating from adipose tissue, usually seen in infancy and early childhood. Here, we present a case of scalp lipoblastoma in a 4-month-old that we treated surgically and review the literature. Although lipoblastomas may be seen in various locations during infancy and early childhood, rarely, they can also develop in the scalp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) is a common malignancy in women. Some molecules, including endocan, are still under investigation as potential prognostic factors in BC. OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we aimed to determine the relationship between endocan expression and clinicopathological prognostic parameters in BC. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-five patients diagnosed with BC were included in the present study. The immuno-reactivity scoring (IRS) system was used to reveal the tissue endocan expression levels. RESULTS: We found that endocan expression is associated with tumor necrosis, tumor size, and the presence of lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) in BC. There was no relationship between endocan expression and survival as well as other clinicopathological prognostic parameters. CONCLUSION: Endocan overexpression in BC is associated with some prognostic parameters, including tumor necrosis, tumor size, and the presence of LCIS. Further studies with larger series are needed to reveal the clinical and therapeutic implications of endocan in BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aims to examine the relationship between banks' marginal cost (official policy rate) and retail rates in Turkish banking loan market. We tested asymmetric pass-through by using threshold autoregressive (TAR) and momentum threshold autoregressive (MTAR) and weekly data over the period of 2011:1 to 2021:36. Empirical results reveal that there is incomplete pass-through between policy rate and retail lending rates as vehicle, housing, and commercial loans. Moreover, it's found that while housing and commercial loan rates are rigid downward, vehicle loan rates are rigid upward. The weak and incomplete adjustment indicate that contestability in Turkish banking market has worsened during the last decades. Within this context, positive, and negative asymmetries in transmission process of Turkish banking system imply that impact of central bank decision on macroeconomic variables (such as inflation, growth etc.) is accepted to be weak in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to examine the causal relationship between investor sentiment and financial investment instruments. Economic Confidence Index (EGE) representing investor sentiment, deposits, stocks, exchange rate (dollar/TL and Euro/TL), gold and government domestic debt securities (DIBS) real returns are used as financial investment instruments. Data cover the period 2007-2020 and are monthly frequency. Hacker and Hatemi-J (2012) according to bootstrap causality test findings, the EGE is only the cause of DIBS return. Based on this, it can be said that the EGE is not a leading indicator. Also, causal relationships are found from stock, exchange rate and DIBS returns to the EGE. In addition, the bootstrap causality test, which changes over time based on the rolling windows approach, is applied, based on the idea that there may be changes in causality relationships between variables during the data period. As a result of the evaluations, causal relations between the EGE and the returns of financial investment instruments arise during periods when confidence in the economy follows a negative view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteases play a central role in regulating renal pathophysiology and are increasingly evaluated as actionable drug targets. Here, we review the role of proteolytic systems in inflammatory kidney disease. Inflammatory kidney diseases are associated with broad dysregulations of extracellular and intracellular proteolysis. As an example of a proteolytic system, the complement system plays a significant role in glomerular inflammatory kidney disease and is currently under clinical investigation. Based on two glomerular kidney diseases, lupus nephritis, and membranous nephropathy, we portrait two proteolytic pathomechanisms and the role of the complement system. We discuss how profiling proteolytic activity in patient samples could be used to stratify patients for more targeted interventions in inflammatory kidney diseases. We also describe novel comprehensive, quantitative tools to investigate the entirety of proteolytic processes in a tissue sample. Emphasis is placed on mass spectrometric approaches that enable the comprehensive analysis of the complement system, as well as protease activities and regulation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aquafilling method, once frequently employed in face, breast, and gluteal augmentation, has seen a gradual decline. At present, the clinical and surgical management of complications in patients who underwent augmentation with Aquafilling has become a topic of controversy. In our case, a 45‑year‑old female patient received an aquafilling injection for gluteal augmentation, alongside combined aesthetic surgeries, 10 years ago. She presented with pain and contour irregularity in both gluteal regions and infected swelling in the left inguinal area due to migration of the Aquafilling. Computed tomography imaging revealed that the filling material in the gluteal area had migrated to the inguinal area. The patient’s treatment process was completed with serial surgical debridement through a direct incision, vacuum‑assisted wound care, and appropriate antibiotic treatment. In conclusion, this report discusses the surgical management of our patient, complications associated with aquafilling injections, and alternative surgical methods in addressing these complications. Although a definitive algorithm for the surgical management of Aquafilling complications is lacking, various surgical methods are highlighted in this report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secreted immune proteases "Required for Cladosporium resistance-3" (Rcr3) and "Phytophthora-inhibited protease-1" (Pip1) of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) are both inhibited by Avirulence-2 (Avr2) from the fungal plant pathogen Cladosporium fulvum. However, only Rcr3 acts as a decoy co-receptor that detects Avr2 in the presence of the Cf-2 immune receptor. Here, we identified crucial residues in tomato Rcr3 that are required for Cf-2-mediated signaling and bioengineered various proteases to trigger Avr2/Cf-2-dependent immunity. Despite substantial divergence in Rcr3 orthologs from eggplant (Solanum melongena) and tobacco (Nicotiana spp.), minimal alterations were sufficient to trigger Avr2/Cf-2-mediated immune signaling. By contrast, tomato Pip1 was bioengineered with 16 Rcr3-specific residues to initiate Avr2/Cf-2-triggered immune signaling. These residues cluster on one side of the protein next to the substrate-binding groove, indicating a potential Cf-2 interaction site. Our findings also revealed that Rcr3 and Pip1 have distinct substrate preferences determined by two variant residues and that both are suboptimal for binding Avr2. This study advances our understanding of Avr2 perception and opens avenues to bioengineer proteases to broaden pathogen recognition in other crops. Secreted proteases of eggplant, tobacco, and tomato were bioengineered to function in the perception of a pathogen-secreted protease inhibitor through a resistance gene product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin cancer can lead to fatal cases if not diagnosed early. Dermotoscopic images are the most important data for early diagnosis of skin cancer. Computer-aided applications involving artificial intelligence models can be a useful tool in helping professionals to diagnose skin cancer from microscopic images. In particular, a deep learning-based applications have become popular for disease detection from medical images. In this study, a deep learning-based approach, including the MobileNetV2 model, was used to diagnose malignant skin cancer from dermotoscopic images. The features are extracted using values from the fully connected layer of the pre-trained MobileNetV2 model. In the next step, high-level features were selected by Random Forest (RF) and L1-Norm SVM algorithms to increase the classification performance. Finally, since it provides better performance compared to other classifiers, the classification process has been made with Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithm. The classification accuracy of 88.35% was achieved with the proposed method. In addition, a better performance was achieved compared to another study using the same data set. In this study, low computational costs were obtained in the training process. In future studies, the classification performance will be tried to be further increased with features obtained from multiple deep learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants secrete various defence-related proteins into the apoplast, including proteases. Papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) are central components of the plant immune system. To overcome plant immunity and successfully colonize their hosts, several plant pathogens secrete effector proteins inhibiting plant PLCPs. We hypothesized that not only pathogens, but also mutualistic microorganisms interfere with PLCP-meditated plant defences to maintain endophytic colonization with their hosts. Epichloë festucae forms mutualistic associations with cool season grasses and produces a range of secondary metabolites that protect the host against herbivores. In this study, we performed a genome-wide identification of Lolium perenne PLCPs, analysed their evolutionary relationship, and classified them into nine PLCP subfamilies. Using activity-based protein profiling, we identified four active PLCPs in the apoplast of L. perenne leaves that are inhibited during endophyte interactions. We characterized the L. perenne cystatin LpCys1 for its inhibitory capacity against ryegrass PLCPs. LpCys1 abundance is not altered during the mutualistic interaction and it mainly inhibits LpCP2. However, since the activity of other L. perenne PLCPs is not sensitive to LpCys1, we propose that additional inhibitors, likely of fungal origin, are involved in the suppression of apoplastic PLCPs during E. festucae infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to define pre- and postoperative planning as a new usage area of 3D imaging programs in the follow-up and treatment of glioblastomas. The thin-section MRI images of the cases were used in this study. These images were analyzed with the 3D angio window of the Radiant Dicom Viewer © Program. In the 3D angio window, it was found that the glioblastoma tumour tissue was revealed in 3D, such as the vascular structures, when calvarium and brain tissue were suppressed. In this examination method, the bleeding in the postoperative surgical area is also suppressed, the contrasting residue tissue is fully visible, and can be monitored in 3D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of four different techniques used in the treatment of ureteral stones on patients' daily physical functioning (PF) and quality of life (QoL). Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent ureterorenoscopy (URS)—with or without Double-J stenting (DJS)—and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) were divided into four groups: Group I: SWL (n = 29), Group II: URS (n = 43), Group III: URS +4.8F DJS (n = 39), Group IV: URS +6F DJS (n = 42), and Group V: Control (n = 30). Short Form-36 (SF-36) was administered to each participant both preoperatively and 14 days after operation. Based on the SF-36 results, the changes in patients' PF and QoL were evaluated. Results: Ureteral stone treatment was performed in 202 patients. Of these, 153 patients who underwent an effective SWL or URS procedure in the first attempt were included in the study. Success rates in the first session were 53.7% (29/54) and 83.8% (124/148) for SWL and URS, respectively (p < 0.001). All the four groups were similar with regard to age, gender, body mass index, stone size, preoperative PF, and QoL. However, although postoperative PF, role limitations due to physical health, and energy/fatigue scores were similar in Group I, III, and IV, they were significantly higher in Group II. No major complication associated with SWL or URS occurred in any patient. However, in Group 2, DJS was inserted in three (7.7%) patients in the early postoperative period (within the first 48 hours) due to renal colic attacks secondary to ureterovesical junction mucosal edema. Conclusion: URS without DJS seems to be the most advantageous technique in the treatment of ureteral stones in terms of daily PF and QoL. However, it should be noted that patients undergoing URS may require postoperative emergency stenting, although rarely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the kinetic model of colemanite dissolution in gluconic acid solutions was carried out in a batch reactor. The effects of the particle size, reaction temperature, stirring speed, gluconic acid concentration, and solid/liquid ratio on colemanite dissolution were experimentally studied. The empirical parameters were the gluconic acid concentration (0.05‐0.2 M), the temperature (20‐50°C), the solid/liquid ratio (0.05/500‐1.5/500 g⋅L−1), particle size (193.5‐1000 μm), and stirring speed (400‐700 rpm). The kinetic models for heterogeneous solid‐liquid reactions were used with the dissolution data in evaluating the kinetic. The dissolution of colemanite in gluconic acid solutions was controlled by diffusion through the product layer. The activation energy was found to be 8.39 kJ⋅mol−1. The rate expression associated with the dissolution rate of colemanite depending on the parameters chosen may be summarized as follows: 1−3(1−X)2/3+2(1−X)=1.2e−8.39/RTt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the sixth grade students' skills in different problem situations requiring four operations in natural numbers and their views on problem posing. Participants of this study, where case study of qualitative research methods were preferred, consisted of 15 students studying at sixth grade level In the study, a problem-posing test including different problem-posing situations, and a semi-structured interview form related to basic operations in natural numbers, were used as data collection tools. Problem posing test consisted of 10 questions. The semi-structured interview form includes open-ended questions on students' mathematical problems and thoughts on problem solving. The data obtained from the problem-posing test were analyzed with regard to the rubric of the test. The answers were first classified as "empty", "not a problem" and "problem". Afterwards the answers determined to be a problem were evaluated and analyzed according to the criteria of "language", "complexity of the problem" and "solvability" in the rubric put forward by Ada and Öztürk (2019). The data obtained from the interviews with the students were analyzed by descriptive analysis. According to the results of the study, while some of the students left the questions blank, a larger part of them could not form a problem sentence even though they answered the questions. In addition, a number of errors were identified in the students' perception of the problem concept. While students were able to pose problems in the most selection cases, they were able to pose very few problems in case of free problems. When the findings of the students' views are considered within the scope of the study, it is determined that problem-posing helps to understand the problem from a cognitive point of view and contributes to the meaning of procedural expression or mathematical subject. At the same time, it has been found that problem-posing creates positive attitudes in students by reducing prejudice against problems in terms of affective aspects and affects students' attitudes towards mathematics and brings them closer to the lesson. In line with the results of the study, some suggestions were made to the research and education stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human physical action classification is an emerging area of research for human-to-machine interaction, which can help to disable people to interact with real world, and robotics application. EMG signals measure the electrical activity muscular systems, which involved in physical action of human. EMG signals provide more information related to physical action. In this paper, we proposed deep transfer learning-based approach of human action classification using surface EMG signals. The surface EMG signals are represented by time–frequency image (TFI) by using short-time Fourier transform. TFI is used as input to pre-trained convolutional neural network models, namely AlexNet and VGG16, for deep feature extraction, and support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used for classification of physical action of EMG signals. Also, the fine-tuning of the pre-trained AlexNet model is also considered. The experimental results show that deep feature extraction and SVM classification method and fine-tuning have obviously improved the classification accuracy when compared with various results from the literature. The 99.04% accuracy score is obtained with AlexNet fc6 + AlexNet fc7 + VGG16 fc6 + VGG16 fc7 deep feature concatenation and SVM classification. 98.65% accuracy score is performed by fine-tuning of the AlexNet model. We also compare the obtained results with some of the existing methods. The comparisons show that the deep feature concatenation and SVM classification method provide better classification accuracy than the compared methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The schools in the United States undergo reforms that involve the integration of data-intensive improvement process known as strategic improvement plans (SIPs). This process requires digital systems to set goals, create interventions, use and analyse student data, monitor and report SIPs. A challenge with digital systems is the integration of a highly diverse set of data sources and identifying users who are engaged with the processes. This study explored how teachers and principals carry out SIPs currently. We applied the sociotechnical walkthrough, a qualitative method that combines a modelling notation and focus group interviews to understand the current workflows, technology use and interactions of teachers and principals developing SIPs. The results illustrate a variety of existing activities and indicate how a newly developed technology may have an impact as well as propose design recommendations to fill a gap in managing SIPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • First heterologous expression of the recombinant digestive protease CT448 of Daphnia magna in Sf 21 cells. • CT448 has an elastase specificity as shown by PICS analysis. • Identification of CT488 as target of cyanobacterial protease inhibitors. • Starting point to study genetic variations of CT488 among Daphnia magna populations in respect to cyanobacterial protease inhibitor susceptibility. Abstract Mass developments of toxin-producing cyanobacteria are frequently observed in freshwater ecosystems due to eutrophication and global warming. These mass developments can partly be attributed to cyanobacterial toxins, such as protease inhibitors (PIs), which inhibit digestive serine proteases of Daphnia, the major herbivore of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria. To date, mechanisms of this inhibition in the gut of the crustacean Daphnia magna are not known. Here, we characterize a single serine protease, chymotrypsin 448 (CT448), which is present in the gut of the crustacean D. magna. Sequence alignments with human serine proteases revealed that CT448 has a putative N-terminal pro-peptide which is extended compared to the mammalian homologs and within this pro-peptide two N-linked glycosylation motifs were found. CT448 was heterologously expressed in Sf 21 insect cells using a baculovirus expression system for optimized protein production and secretion into the medium. The protein was purified via a one-step affinity chromatography, which resulted in a protein yield of 3.45 mg/l medium. The inactive precursor (zymogen) could be activated by tryptic digestion. This is the first example of a recombinant expression of an active crustacean serine protease, which functions in the gut of Daphnia. Proteomic identification of protease cleavage sites (PICS) and hydrolysation of various synthetic substrates showed that CT448 is a chymotrypsin-like elastase. In this study, we confirm that CT448 is a target of cyanobacterial protease inhibitors. Local evolutionary modifications of CT448 might render this proteolytic enzyme less susceptible against cyanobacterial secondary metabolites and might improve the fitness of Daphnia during cyanobacterial blooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1980s, European Union countries have witnessed significant transformations as regards public management reforms. This era can be examined in two periods. Until mid-1990s the reforms were heavily influenced by the principles of new public management (NPM) paradigm whereas the second period of reforms was handled in the midst of intense criticism towards NPM. Today debate on public management reforms is omnipresent in the entire European Union. On the other hand, the EU requests candidate countries to put into practice public management reforms. The potential effectiveness of such demands is far from being clear in an environment where intense debates are ongoing over the path that public management reforms should take. Some studies show that there is increasing confusion on the direction of public management reforms especially after the 2008 economic crisis. In Turkey, reactionary measures were taken against NPM regulations which led to the fragmentation of central authority: independent regulatory agencies were put under tighter control of the government, and prime minister’s office and president’s office were expanded and reinforced. A closer look at these practices implicates that these steps are beyond fashioning an integrated administration as a response to the fragmentation in the central government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contents Summary 936 I. Introduction 936 II. The quest for plant protease substrates – proteomics to the rescue? 937 III. Quantitative proteome comparison reveals candidate substrates 938 IV. Dynamic metabolic stable isotope labeling to measure protein turnover in vivo 938 V. Terminomics – large‐scale identification of protease cleavage sites 939 VI. Substrate or not substrate, that is the question 940 VII. Concluding remarks 941 Acknowledgements 941 References 941 Summary: Proteolysis is a central regulatory mechanism of protein homeostasis and protein function that affects all aspects of plant life. Higher plants encode for hundreds of proteases, but their physiological substrates and hence their molecular functions remain mostly unknown. Current quantitative mass spectrometry‐based proteomics enables unbiased large‐scale interrogation of the proteome and its modifications. Here we provide an overview of proteomics techniques that allow profiling of changes in protein abundance, measurement of proteome turnover rates, identification of protease cleavage sites in vivo and in vitro and determination of protease sequence specificity. We discuss how these techniques can help to reveal protease substrates and determine plant protease function, illustrated by recent studies on selected plant proteases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Plant legumains are crucial for processing seed storage proteins and are critical regulators of plant programmed cell death. Although research on legumains boosted recently, little is known about their activity regulation. In our study, we used pull‐down experiments to identify AtCYT6 as a natural inhibitor of legumain isoform β (AtLEGβ) in Arabidopsis thaliana. Biochemical analysis revealed that AtCYT6 inhibits both AtLEGβ and papain‐like cysteine proteases through two separate cystatin domains. The N‐terminal domain inhibits papain‐like proteases, while the C‐terminal domain inhibits AtLEGβ. Furthermore, we showed that AtCYT6 interacts with legumain in a substrate‐like manner, facilitated by a conserved asparagine residue in its reactive center loop. Complex formation was additionally stabilized by charged exosite interactions, contributing to pH‐dependent inhibition. Processing of AtCYT6 by AtLEGβ suggests a context‐specific regulatory mechanism with implications for plant physiology, development, and programmed cell death. These findings enhance our understanding of AtLEGβ regulation and its broader physiological significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is vitally important to coordinate resources, information sharing, and two-way communication between medical incident commanders (ICs) and first medical responders (paramedics) at mass casualty incidents (MCI) sites. Information at the time of disasters also needs to be effectively analyzed and presented through intelligent user interfaces. Such interfaces need to be easy-to-use by ICs to foster critical decisions that can potentially reduce mortality rates. In this paper, we present Panacea's Cloud?--a nextgeneration multiple casualty management system. This system has been iteratively developed and refined based on user experience research driven methodology that employed a mixed methods approach, including the views of clinical experts. Panacea's Cloud? is an example of a next generation MCI system that has an intelligent dashboard that integrates Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies such as wearable devices and augmented reality technology (AR), virtual beacons, and sensor network nodes. It supports coordination between ICs and paramedics. Our research demonstrates how IoT-based web applications, especially AR and the use of smart glasses, can be futuristically designed for purposes of smart healthcare applications that have effective and efficient communication capabilities. General design recommendations for next generation multiple casualty management system development include incorporating Situational Awareness features, a Synchronous Map View system, a Hands-Free Communication service with AR and smart glasses, Digital Notes, and resilient Wi-Fi networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hair-thread tourniquet syndrome (HTTS) is an emergency phenomenon in which hair or thread tightly wraps around a protruding appendage of the body, resulting in pain, swelling, and rarely ischemia and amputation. While the toes, fingers, and external genitalia are the most affected areas, it can also impact other protruding parts of the body. Nevertheless, except for a few cases of skin tags and hemangioma, HTTS associated with a protruding skin mass is extremely rare in the literature. In this study, we present the management of two cases: One involving a pediatric patient with HTTS affecting the right fourth toe and the other involving a protruding pyogenic granuloma on the back of an adult patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effect of terrorism on public expenditure except military expenditures has been investigated over the period 2002-2014 for the 30 member countries of The Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Global Terrorism Index published by Vision of Humanity has been used to represent the terrorism which has a significant impact on the fiscal structure of country's economy. Considering the findings obtained, the terrorism has positive effect in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan and Uganda; negative effect in Azerbaijan, Algeria, Indonesia and Jordan on public spending except military spending. Because of the limited number of studies that examine the impact of terrorism on public expenditure, the results of the study are considered to make an important contribution on the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sterols and Sphingolipids form lipid clusters in the plasma membranes of cell types throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. These lipid domains provide a medium for protein signaling complexes at the plasma membrane and are also observed to be principal regions of membrane contact at the inception of infection. We visualized different specific fluorescent lipophilic stains of the both sphingolipid enriched and non-sphingolipid enriched regions in the plasma membranes of live protoplasts of Arabidopsis thaliana. Results: Lipid staining protocols for several fluorescent lipid analogues in plants are presented. The most emphasis was placed on successful protocols for the single and dual staining of sphingolipid enriched regions and exclusion of sphingolipid enriched regions on the plasma membrane of Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts. A secondary focus was placed to ensure that these staining protocols presented still maintain cell viability. Furthermore, the protocols were successfully tested with the spectrally sensitive dye Laurdan. Conclusion: Almost all existing staining procedures of the plasma membrane with fluorescent lipid analogues are specified for animal cells and tissues. In order to develop lipid staining protocols for plants, procedures were established with critical steps for the plasma membrane staining of Arabidopsis leaf tissue and protoplasts. The success of the plasma membrane staining protocols was additionally verified by measurements of lipid dynamics by the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching technique and by the observation of new phenomena such as time dependent lipid polarization events in living protoplasts, for which a putative physiological relevance is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative procedure is an essential tool for putting rule of law into execution. In Turkey, such legislations as Law of Confiscation, Law of Tax Procedures, Public Tender Act, State Tender Act, Law on the Collection of Public Receivables and Law on the Roles and Authorities of Police contain procedural rules that administration should follow; however, there is still need for a procedural system effective for all administrative processes. The task of administrative procedures was addressed within the framework of a general legislation in some countries such as United States, Spain, Italy, Austria and West Germany in the years following Second World War. In Turkey, with the international symposium organized in 1998, efforts began for preparation of a general administrative procedures act, but this draft has not become law yet due to the universality of the area and the relevant acquis that it covers; another reason for this delay is that bureaucracy is not willing to give up the power that it enjoys. It is expected that when the process is completed, this act will bring about favourable results for democratization of public administration in Turkey [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD), which is a slowly progressing neurodegenerative disorder, negatively affects people's daily lives. Early diagnosis is of great importance to minimize the effects of PD. One of the most important symptoms in the early diagnosis of PD disease is the monotony and distortion of speech. Artificial intelligence-based approaches can help specialists and physicians to automatically detect these disorders. In this study, a new and powerful approach based on multi-level feature selection was proposed to detect PD from features containing voice recordings of already-diagnosed cases. At the first level, feature selection was performed with the Chi-square and L1-Norm SVM algorithms (CLS). Then, the features that were extracted from these algorithms were combined to increase the representation power of the samples. At the last level, those samples that were highly distinctive from the combined feature set were selected with feature importance weights using the ReliefF algorithm. In the classification stage, popular classifiers such as KNN, SVM, and DT were used for machine learning, and the best performance was achieved with the KNN classifier. Moreover, the hyperparameters of the KNN classifier were selected with the Bayesian optimization algorithm, and the performance of the proposed approach was further improved. The proposed approach was evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation technique on a dataset containing PD and normal classes, and a classification accuracy of 95.4% was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in and around anatomical structures such as blood vessels, optic disc, fovea, and macula can lead to ophthalmological diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), myopia, hypertension, and cataracts. If these diseases are not diagnosed early, they may cause partial or complete loss of vision in patients. Fundus imaging is the primary method used to diagnose ophthalmologic diseases. In this study, a powerful R-CNN+LSTM-based approach is proposed that automatically detects eight different ophthalmologic diseases from fundus images. Deep features were extracted from fundus images with the proposed R-CNN+LSTM structure. Among the deep features extracted, those with high representative power were selected with an approach called NCAR, which is a multilevel feature selection algorithm. In the classification phase, the SVM algorithm, which is a powerful classifier, was used. The proposed approach is evaluated on the eight-class ODIR dataset. The accuracy (main metric), sensitivity, specificity, and precision metrics were used for the performance evaluation of the proposed approach. Besides, the performance of the proposed approach was compared with the existing approaches using the ODIR dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study is presented to determine the optimization of the dissolution of magnesite in citric acid solutions by Taguchi Method. The effects of parameters such as acid concentration, reaction period, reaction temperature, solid–liquid ratio and particle size are studied. Because the desired characteristic for response has been the maximum magnesite extraction, Taguchi''s ‘the larger the better’ performance formula is used. The optimum conditions for dissolution are found to be acid concentration 2 M, reaction period 120 min, reaction temperature 75 °C, solid–liquid ratio 0.125 g/mL and particle size −319 µm. The experimental results exhibit that, under optimal leaching conditions, the extraction of magnesite can be 99.90%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a case study of 50-year-old premenopausal and multiparous woman with abnormal uterine bleeding. It also notes the identification of benign metastasising leiomyoma (BML), its association with myomectomy especially a uterine surgery, smooth muscle cells differentiating from nerve sheath tumors.

Recently, there has been an incremental interest on Environmental Sound Classification (ESC), which is an important topic of the non-speech audio classification task. A novel approach, which is based on deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), is proposed in this study. The proposed approach covers a bunch of stages such as pre-processing, deep learning based feature extraction, feature concatenation, feature reduction and classification, respectively. In the first stage, the input sound signals are denoised and are converted into sound images by using the Sort Time Fourier Transform (STFT) method. After sound images are formed, pre-trained CNN models are used for deep feature extraction. In this stage, VGG16, VGG19 and DenseNet201 models are considered. The feature extraction is performed in a pyramidal fashion which makes the dimension of the feature vector quite large. For both dimension reduction and the determination of the most efficient features, a feature selection mechanism is considered after feature concatenation stage. In the last stage of the proposed method, a Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifier is used. The efficiency of the proposed method is calculated on various ESC datasets such as ESC 10, ESC 50 and UrbanSound8K, respectively. The experimental works show that the proposed method produced 94.8%, 81.4% and 78.14% accuracy scores for ESC-10, ESC-50 and UrbanSound8K datasets. The obtained results are also compared with the state-of-the art methods achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common genetical disorder, symptoms due to neural involvement are rare among infants and children. Ganglioneuromas are slow-growing tumors and can be seen in patients with NF1. However, bilateral symmetrical involvement is very rarely reported in the literature. We present a rare pediatric case with NF1 who presented with upper cervical bilateral symmetrical ganglioneuroma. Case presentation: A 7-year-old male presented with progressive gait disturbance, falls, and bilateral limb and trunk numbness that started several weeks ago. Physical examination revealed generalized café au lait spots, neurofibromas, and axillary and inguinal freckling. Family history for NF1 was positive. Neurological examination showed slight paraparesis and hypoesthesia of the upper extremities with C4–C5 dermatomas being more distinct. Cervical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed contrast enhancing dumbbell-shaped symmetrical lesions originating from both C3 nerve roots extending to C2–C5 vertebral body levels. There was a significant spinal cord compression causing myelopathy as well as dystrophic changes and kyphotic deformity at those levels. The patient was operated and the lesions were totally excised via C2–3–4 laminoplasty. Histopathological evaluation reported the lesion as ganglioneuroma. Following the surgery for excision of the lesions, the patient presented with rapidly progressing kyphotic deformity and underwent rigid craniocervical fusion. Conclusion: Ganglioneuromas are seen among children, tend to occur in the mediastinum, abdomen, and retroperitoneal area, and may accompany NF1. Cervical spinal ganglioneuroma, however, is a very rare entity. Co-existence of NF1 and bilateral symmetrical cervical ganglioneuroma is highly unusual. Like neurofibromas, ganglioneuromas are slow-growing tumors and therefore they are not expected to cause myelopathy and related symptoms during childhood. Symmetrical nature of the lesions results in myelopathy and early onset of symptoms. Due to the risk of postoperative increase of kyphotic angulation, laminoplasty should be considered. Although laminoplasty alone does not prevent the progression of kyphotic changes, the procedure may allow the use of sublaminar wires and laminar hooks for future surgeries to correct the deformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: SGLT2 (sodium-glucose cotransporter 2) inhibitors (SGLT2i) can protect the kidneys and heart, but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. METHODS: To gain insights on primary effects of SGLT2i that are not confounded by pathophysiologic processes or are secondary to improvement by SGLT2i, we performed an in-depth proteomics, phosphoproteomics, and metabolomics analysis by integrating signatures from multiple metabolic organs and body fluids after 1 week of SGLT2i treatment of nondiabetic as well as diabetic mice with early and uncomplicated hyperglycemia. RESULTS: Kidneys of nondiabetic mice reacted most strongly to SGLT2i in terms of proteomic reconfiguration, including evidence for less early proximal tubule glucotoxicity and a broad downregulation of the apical uptake transport machinery (including sodium, glucose, urate, purine bases, and amino acids), supported by mouse and human SGLT2 interactome studies. SGLT2i affected heart and liver signaling, but more reactive organs included the white adipose tissue, showing more lipolysis, and, particularly, the gut microbiome, with a lower relative abundance of bacteria taxa capable of fermenting phenylalanine and tryptophan to cardiovascular uremic toxins, resulting in lower plasma levels of these compounds (including p-cresol sulfate). SGLT2i was detectable in murine stool samples and its addition to human stool microbiota fermentation recapitulated some murine microbiome findings, suggesting direct inhibition of fermentation of aromatic amino acids and tryptophan. In mice lacking SGLT2 and in patients with decompensated heart failure or diabetes, the SGLT2i likewise reduced circulating p-cresol sulfate, and p-cresol impaired contractility and rhythm in human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived engineered heart tissue. CONCLUSIONS: SGLT2i reduced microbiome formation of uremic toxins such as p-cresol sulfate and thereby their body exposure and need for renal detoxification, which, combined with direct kidney effects of SGLT2i, including less proximal tubule glucotoxicity and a broad downregulation of apical transporters (including sodium, amino acid, and urate uptake), provides a metabolic foundation for kidney and cardiovascular protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-Americanism is a growing tendency among people in Turkey, and the media is one source of this negative sentiment. After the failed military coup attempt in Turkey on 15 July 2016, more than 150 domestic media outlets were shut down, including television channels, daily newspapers, radio stations, news websites, and even social media. Local affiliates of international media companies such as Deutsche Welle Turkish, however, have remained immune to such government interventions to some extent. Considering the difference in the level of independence from Turkish government influence, this study aims to explore how the anti-American sentiment in the news varied across different media outlets. With the content of 690 online news reports, a sentiment analysis compared the pro-government Sabah and Yeni Şafak daily newspapers with two internationally owned and more independent media outlets, BBC News Turkish and Deutsche Welle. The results showed a significant discrepancy between the two groups in terms of how they framed news related to the United States. The domestic media framed and reported the US-related news with a more negative slant, including the use of offensive and pejorative narratives about the United States and its politics. BBC Turkish and Deutsche Welle, however, reported news about the United States with a relatively more neutral and objective language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Risk factors of cranial migration were investigated in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) that migrated in the cranial direction and the long-term outcomes are discussed in this study. Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent surgery for LDH at four different centers between 2012 and 2017 were studied. Extraligamentous discs were located in the lateral part of the posterior longitudinal ligament (PLL) within the spinal canal of the axial plane, and subligamentous discs were located under the PLL. The extent of cranial migration was calculated as a percentage of the height of the migrated corpus. Based on the extent of cranial migration, partial hemilaminectomy or hemilaminectomy was performed at different rates in each patient and the amount of laminectomy performed was recorded. During surgery, all free fragments were attempted to be removed. The appropriate technique was decided intraoperatively, and the surgery was performed on an individual patient basis. Results: Of 1289 patients who underwent surgery for LDH, 654 (50.73%) had caudal migration, 576 (44.68%) had migration at the level of the disc, and 59 (4.57%) had cranial migration. Analysis of 59 patients with cranial migration according to the localization of the disc fragment revealed that 31 had extraligamentous and 28 had subligamentous fragments (P = 0.024). Conclusions: Extraligamentous intervertebral disc fragments migrate more cranially than subligamentous intervertebral fragments. The anatomy of the PLL that varies along the corpus is the main reason for the weakness of the resistance of the disc material to the dorsolateral region, direction of discrete force vectors, and orientation of the disc fragment due to torsional vertebral movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Increasing drought phenomena pose a serious threat to agricultural productivity. Although plants have multiple ways to respond to the complexity of drought stress, the underlying mechanisms of stress sensing and signaling remain unclear. The role of the vasculature, in particular the phloem, in facilitating inter‐organ communication is critical and poorly understood.Combining genetic, proteomic and physiological approaches, we investigated the role of AtMC3, a phloem‐specific member of the metacaspase family, in osmotic stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Analyses of the proteome in plants with altered AtMC3 levels revealed differential abundance of proteins related to osmotic stress pointing into a role of the protein in water‐stress‐related responses.Overexpression of AtMC3 conferred drought tolerance by enhancing the differentiation of specific vascular tissues and maintaining higher levels of vascular‐mediated transportation, while plants lacking the protein showed an impaired response to drought and inability to respond effectively to the hormone abscisic acid.Overall, our data highlight the importance of AtMC3 and vascular plasticity in fine‐tuning early drought responses at the whole plant level without affecting growth or yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a new deep learning-based approach has been developed that detects and classifies surface defects that occur in the steel production process. The proposed methodology was created in four steps. In the first step, a deep learning model is designed that trains the residual and attention structures in parallel, thus increasing the classification performance. In the second step, deep features were extracted from the Parallel Attention Residual-Convolutional Neural Network model. The extracted features in the third step were selected by a new and simple algorithm (NCA-ReliefF Matched Index) based on matching the indexes obtained from the Neighborhood Component Analysis and Relief algorithms. In the last process, classification was done with the support vector machine algorithm. The proposed methodology was used for dual and multi-class classification tasks and evaluated on a dataset in the Kaggle database named Severstal: Steel Defect Detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The podocyte is a key cell in maintaining renal filtration barrier integrity. Several recent studies have analyzed the genome and transcriptome in the podocyte at deep resolution. This avenue of "podocyte-ome" research was enabled by a variety of techniques, including 1) single-cell transcriptomics, 2) FACS with and without genetically encoded markers, and 3) deep proteomics. However, data across various omics techniques and studies are currently not well integrated with each other. Here, we aimed to establish a common, simplified knowledge base for the mouse podocyte-ome by integrating bulk RNA sequencing, bulk proteomics of FACSsorted podocytes, and single-cell transcriptomics. Three publicly available datasets of each omics technique from different laboratories were bioinformatically integrated and visualized. Our approach not only revealed conserved processes of podocytes but also sheds light on the benefits and limitations of the used technologies. We identified that high expression of glycan glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor synthesis and turnover, as well as retinol metabolism, were relatively understudied features of podocytes. In addition, actinbinding molecules were organized in a podocyte-specific manner, as evidenced by differential expression in podocytes compared with other glomerular cells. We compiled a Web-based "PodIdent" application that illustrates the features of the integrated dataset. This enables user-driven exploratory analysis by querying genes of interest for podocyte identity in absolute and relative quantification while also linking to functional annotation using keywords, Gene Ontology terms, and gene set enrichments. This consensus draft is a first step toward common molecular omics knowledge of kidney cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinetic parameters of tincalconite during thermal decomposition were explored with TGA data. Coats-Redfern and Suzuki methods were implemented for the kinetics analysis. Decomposition kinetics of tincalconite occurred in two steps and both suitably fit a first-order kinetic model. Activation energy and frequency factor were observed as 149.17 kJ.mol-1 and 1.2×1016 min-1 for region I, and 5.45 kJ.mol-1 and 5.23×108 min-1 for region II, respectively with the Coats-Redfern method. Activation energy and frequency factor were observed as 60.95 kJ.mol-1 and 67.21×105 min-1, respectively for the Suzuki method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dissolution of magnesite in acetic acid solutions was investigated. The influence of various parameters such as reaction temperature, particle size and acid concentration was studied in order to elucidate the kinetics of magnesium carbonate. The leaching rate increased with decreasing particle size and with increasing temperature. Initially, the dissolution in terms of acid concentration increased until a definite concentration and then fell with increasing concentration. A kinetic model was researched to describe the dissolution and to analyse the kinetic data, basically. Dissolution curves were evaluated in order to test shrinking core models for fluid–solid systems. Consequently, it was determined that the dissolution of natural magnesite was controlled by chemical reaction, i.e., 1−(1−x)1/3=kt. The apparent activation energy of leaching process was found as 78.40 kJ mol−1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The ATP-dependent metalloprotease FtsH12 (filamentation temperature sensitive protein H 12) has been suggested to participate in a heteromeric motor complex, driving protein translocation into the chloroplast. FtsH12 was immuno-detected in proplastids, seedlings, leaves, and roots. Expression of Myc-tagged FtsH12 under its native promotor allowed identification of FtsHi1, 2, 4, and 5, and plastidic NAD-malate dehydrogenase, five of the six interaction partners in the suggested import motor complex. Arabidopsis thaliana mutant seedlings with reduced FTSH12 abundance exhibited pale cotyledons and small, deformed chloroplasts with altered thylakoid structure. Mature plants retained these chloroplast defects, resulting in slightly variegated leaves and lower chlorophyll content. Label-free proteomics revealed strong changes in the proteome composition of FTSH12 knock-down seedlings, reflecting impaired plastid development. The composition of the translocon on the inner chloroplast membrane (TIC) protein import complex was altered, with coordinated reduction of the FtsH12-FtsHi complex subunits and accumulation of the 1 MDa TIC complex subunits TIC56, TIC214 and TIC22-III. FTSH12 overexpressor lines showed no obvious phenotype, but still displayed distinct differences in their proteome. N-terminome analyses further demonstrated normal proteolytic maturation of plastid-imported proteins irrespective of FTSH12 abundance. Together, our data suggest that FtsH12 has highest impact during seedling development; its abundance alters the plastid import machinery and impairs chloroplast development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]