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Despite intensive research and breeding efforts, the physiological and quantitative genetic bases of drought tolerance are still poorly understood. The comparison of results obtained from different sources is also complex, because different testing methods may lead to controversial conclusions. This report discusses various drought stress experiments (hydroponics and in soil) in which the plant tolerance was studied at different developmental stages. Tests were performed in the germination, seedling and adult plant stages on the parental lines of five well‐known barley‐mapping populations. The results suggest that drought tolerance is a stage‐specific trait and changes during the life cycle. The effect of drought stress depended not only on the duration and intensity of water deficiency, but also on the developmental phase in which it began. To induce the same type of stress and to obtain comparable tolerance information from the replications, it is recommended that drought stress should be induced at the same growth stage. Correlations between the traits, commonly associated with improved drought resistance (high relative water content under stress, proline accumulation, osmoregulation) with stress tolerance indexes, are also presented, while the advantages and disadvantages of the most frequently used screening methods are discussed.

We study a natural dependent percolation model introduced by Häggström. Consider subcritical Bernoulli bond percolation with a fixed parameter p < p c . We define a dependent site percolation model by the following procedure: for each bond cluster, we colour all vertices in the cluster black with probability r and white with probability 1 − r , independently of each other. On the square lattice, defining the critical probabilities for the site model and its dual, r c ( p) and r * c ( p) respectively, as usual, we prove that r c ( p) + r * c ( p) = 1 for all subcritical p. On the triangular lattice, where our method also works, this leads to r c ( p) = 1/2, for all subcritical p. On both lattices, we obtain exponential decay of cluster sizes below r c ( p), divergence of the mean cluster size at r c ( p), and continuity of the percolation function in r on [0, 1]. We also discuss possible extensions of our results, and formulate some natural conjectures. Our methods rely on duality considerations and on recent extensions of the classical RSW theorem.

Background Geriatric falls are leading causes of hospital trauma admissions and injury-related deaths. Medication use is a crucial element among extrinsic risk factors for falls. To reduce fall risk and the prevalence of adverse drug reactions, potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) lists are widely used. Objective Our aim was to investigate the possible predictors of geriatric falls annualized over a 5-year-long period, as well as to evaluate the medication use of nursing home residents. Setting Nursing home residents were recruited from the same institution between 2010 and 2015 in Szeged, Hungary. Method A retrospective epidemiological study was performed. Patient data were analysed for the first 12 months of residency. Chi-squared test and Fisher's-test were applied to compare the categorical variables, Student's t test to compare the continuous variables between groups. Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the association of falls with other variables found significant in univariate analysis. Microsoft Excel, IBM SPSS Statistics (version 23) and R (3.2.2) programs were used for data analysis. Main outcome measure Falls affected by age, gender, number of chronic medications, polypharmacy, PIM meds. Results A total of 197 nursing home residents were included, 150 (76.2%) women and 47 (23.8%) men, 55 fallers (annual fall prevalence rate was 27.9%) and 142 non-fallers. Gender was not a predisposing factor for falls (prevalence in males: 23.4 vs 29.3% in females, p > 0.05). Fallers were older (mean years ± SD; 84.0 ± 7.0) than non-fallers (80.1 ± 9.3, p < 0.01). The age ≥80 years was a significant risk factor for falls (p < 0.001). The number of chronic medications was higher in male fallers (12.4 ± 4.0) than in non-fallers (6.9 ± 4.2, p < 0.001). Polypharmacy (taking four or more chronic medications) was a significant risk factor of falls (p < 0.01). Those PIMs carrying fall risk were taken by 70.9% of fallers and 75.3% of non-fallers (p > 0.05). Taking pantoprazole, vinpocetine or trimetazidine was a significant risk factor for falls. Conclusion Older age, polypharmacy and the independent use of pantoprazole, vinpocetine, and trimetazidine were found to be major risk factors for falls. Further real-life epidemiological studies are necessary to confirm the role of particular active agents, and to help professionals prescribe, evaluate and review geriatric medication use.

Cholecystokinin (CCK) is a brain-gut peptide; it functions both as a neuropeptide and as a gut hormone. Although the pancreas and the gallbladder were long thought to be the principal peripheral targets of CCK, CCK receptors are found throughout the gut. It is likely that CCK has a physiological role not only in the stimulation of pancreatic and biliary secretions but also in the regulation of gastrointestinal motility. The motor effects of CCK include postprandial inhibition of gastric emptying and inhibition of colonic transit. It is now evident that at least two different receptors, CCK 1 and CCK 2 (formerly CCK-A and CCK-B, respectively), mediate the actions of CCK. Both localization and functional studies suggest that the motor effects of CCK are mediated by CCK 1 receptors in humans. Since CCK is involved in sensory and motor responses to distension in the intestinal tract, it may contribute to the symptoms of constipation, bloating and abdominal pain that are often characteristic of functional gastrointestinal disorders in general and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), in particular. CCK 1 receptor antagonists are therefore currently under development for the treatment of constipation-predominant IBS. Clinical studies suggest that CCK 1 receptor antagonists are effective facilitators of gastric emptying and inhibitors of gallbladder contraction and can accelerate colonic transit time in healthy volunteers and patients with IBS. These drugs are therefore potentially of great value in the treatment of motility disorders such as constipation and constipation-predominant IBS.

For parameters $p\in[0,1]$ and $q>0$ such that the Fortuin--Kasteleyn (FK) random-cluster measure $\Phi_{p,q}^{\mathbb{Z}^d}$ for $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with parameters $p$ and $q$ is unique, the $q$-divide and color [$\operatorname {DaC}(q)$] model on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ is defined as follows. First, we draw a bond configuration with distribution $\Phi_{p,q}^{\mathbb{Z}^d}$. Then, to each (FK) cluster (i.e., to every vertex in the FK cluster), independently for different FK clusters, we assign a spin value from the set $\{1,2,\...,s\}$ in such a way that spin $i$ has probability $a_i$. In this paper, we prove that the resulting measure on spin configurations is a Gibbs measure for small values of $p$ and is not a Gibbs measure for large $p$, except in the special case of $q\in \{2,3,\...\}$, $a_1=a_2=\...=a_s=1/q$, when the $\operatorname {DaC}(q)$ model coincides with the $q$-state Potts model.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOP518 the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

C-seal application in stapled colorectal anastomoses does not reduce anastomotic leakage. Registration number: NTR3080 (http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp).