Gross total resection was attempted in all patients. However, two of 3 patients with fourth ventricle floor invasion had subtotal resection with a thin layer of tumor left on the floor. The remaining 6 had a gross total resection. Six patients with preoperative hydrocephalus had a perioperative external ventricular drainage but none required permanent shunting after tumor resection. None showed recurrence/tumor progression without adjuvant therapy during the follow-up period of 20 months to 11 years. CONCLUSION Infratentorial dominance among pediatric CPTs in this series contradicts previous reports. Infratentorial CPTs are amenable to surgical resection. Unresected small residuals due to invasion to the fourth ventricle floor showed no regrowth during 2 to 3 years follow-up without adjuvant therapy. However, these patients with incomplete resection need watchful observations.BACKGROUND Oropharyngeal dysphagia is widespread in geriatric patients and is nearly always multicausal. It is often insufficiently recognized and leads to severe complications. The available and established screening tools all focus primarily on patients with neurological diseases, usually following a stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS The working group on dysphagia of the German Society of Geriatrics (DGG), which is comprised of physicians, speech and language therapists and dysphagia therapists, performed a literature review on dysphagia screening tools. Based on the results of the literature search and own experience, a new screening instrument suitable for geriatric patients was developed and agreed by the consensus group. RESULTS The new screening instrument for the detection of oropharyngeal dysphagia in geriatric patients consists of three parts 1) consciousness and posture control while sitting, 2) ability to swallow saliva and to cough as well as tongue motility and 3) the water swallowing test. The screening can be applied by trained medical personnel and can easily be integrated into everyday practice. CONCLUSION The new screening tool is especially aimed at geriatric patients. It has advantages compared to previously recommended screening tests. Initial experiences with the instrument show good practicability and acceptance in geriatric teams. Further studies have to test the validity of the instrument.The TaMP gene from wheat encodes an α-mannosidase induced by salt stress that functions as negative regulator of salt tolerance in plants. Salt stress significantly affects growth and yield of crop plants. The α-mannosidases function in protein folding, trafficking, and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation in eukaryotic cells, and they are involved in abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Previously, we identified the α-mannosidase gene TaMP in wheat (Triticum aestivum). In this study, we investigated the function of TaMP in salt stress tolerance. TaMP expression was induced in wheat leaves by salt, drought, abscisic acid, and H2O2 treatments. Overexpressing TaMP in Brachypodium distachyon was associated with a salt-sensitive phenotype. Under salt stress, the overexpressing plants had reduced height, delayed growth status, low photosynthetic rate, decreased survival rate, and diminished yield. Moreover, the overexpression of TaMP aggravated the tendency for ions to become toxic under salt stress by significantly affecting the Na+ and K+ contents in cells. selleck In addition, TaMP could negatively regulate salt tolerance by affecting the antioxidant enzyme system capacity and increasing the reactive oxygen species accumulation. Our study was helpful to understand the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in plants.SBTX has defensive role against C. kikuchii, and therefore, its constituent genes SBTX17 and SBTX27 are promising candidates to engineer pathogen resistant plants. Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) is economically the most important legume crop in the world. Its productivity is strongly affected by fungal diseases, which reduce soybean production and seed quality and cause losses of billions of dollars worldwide. SBTX is a protein that apparently takes part in the defensive chemical arsenal of soybean against pathogens. This current study provides data that reinforce this hypothesis. Indeed, SBTX inhibited in vitro the mycelial growth of Cercospora kikuchii, it is constitutively located in the epidermal region of the soybean seed cotyledons, and it is exuded from mature imbibed seeds. Moreover, RT-qPCR analysis of the SBTX associated genes, SBTX17 and SBTX27, which encode for the 17 and 27 kDa polypeptide chains, showed that both genes are expressed in all studied plant tissues during the soybean development, with the highest levels found in the mature seeds and unifoliate leaves. In addition, to assess a local response of the soybean secondary leaves from 35-day-old plants, they were inoculated with C. kikuchii and treated with salicylic acid. It was verified using RT-qPCR that SBTX17 and SBTX27 genes overexpressed in leaves compared to controls. These findings strongly suggest that SBTX has defensive roles against C. kikuchii. Therefore, SBTX17 and SBTX27 genes are promising candidates to engineer pathogen resistant plants.Persisters of infectious agents are capable of surviving antibiotic treatment so the emergence of these subpopulations need to be overcome. In this study, we aimed to isolate, characterize and inhibit persister subpopulation in two clinical isolates Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis. Different behavior profiles between the two isolates could be observed. The results of dose-dependent killing curve revealed that 2.3% (Klebsiella pneumoniae) versus 1.3% (Proteus mirabilis) persister cells could be recovered using 500 and 30 ug/ml ciprofloxacin, respectively. Upon resuscitation, persister cells exhibited only 65% versus 30% percentage growth and 5 versus 7 times cell elongation relative to Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis, respectively. The levels of persister cells to ciprofloxacin of Klebsiella pneumoniae were dramatically decreased by about 79, 92, 97 and 83% in average by pre-exposure to hyperosmotic stress, temperature, different pHs, and hydrogen peroxide, respectively, while those of Proteus mirabilis were minimally decreased with corresponding reduction percentages of about 12%, 24 & 25%, and 0%.