a b s t r a c tHigher relative humidity under elevated CO 2 conditions increases stomatal conductance and is expected to promote photosynthesis and growth of tomato. However, yield increase under higher relative humidity has been often reported to be unstable, depending on the growing conditions. Therefore, we investigated the effect of relative humidity and nutrient supply on growth and nutrient uptake under elevated CO 2 conditions in greenhouse tomato production. In two greenhouses, we grew tomato hydroponically at two electrical conductivity (EC) levels (low EC treatments: 0.8-1.2 dS m −1 , high EC treatments: 1.6-1.9 dS m −1 ). In one greenhouse, we installed a humidification system. The other was designated as a control. The dry weight (DW) per plant tended to increase with humidification though without significant differences. The leaf area per plant was not affected by humidification, but the high EC treatment increased the leaf area. The average water uptake in the low EC with mist decreased compared with that without mist. Our results suggested that water use efficiency was increased by higher humidity, whereas the nutrient content of leaves was suppressed by mist in the low EC. In both the treatments, supplying higher EC levels of nutrient solutions increased N, K and P contents but did not increased Ca or Mg contents as well as in low EC without mist. These results suggest that supplying high EC nutrient solutions cannot increase Ca and Mg contents sufficiently in leaves and stems. To stably increase yield of tomato by humidification under elevated CO 2 conditions, it is important to monitor the transpiration rate and carefully control relative humidity.
Sialyl-Tn (STn) antigen is a cancer-associated carbohydrate antigen expressed in cancers of the digestive tract. In the present study, we compared the serum level of STn antigen in 14 patients with benign diseases of the biliary tract and pancreas, 15 patients with bile duct cancers, and 9 patients with cancer of the pancreas. High levels of serum STn (>45 U/ml) were frequently detected in patients with carcinoma of the biliary tract (53.3%) or pancreas (55.6%), compared with the detection of high levels in those with benign diseases (14.3%; P < 0.05). Serum levels of STn did not correlate with the presence of jaundice, cholangitis, or pancreatitis, or with the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9. In cancer tissues, the expression of STn antigen detected by immunostaining correlated significantly with serum STn (P < 0.05). Our results indicate that measurement of serum STn level may be potentially useful for the diagnosis of carcinomas of the biliary tract and pancreas, particularly when combined with other tumor markers such as CEA or CA19-9.
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