Early-stage [123I]beta-CIT SPECT and long-term clinical follow-up in patients with an initial diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

beta-CIT binding in both caudate nuclei was lower than in the group of patients with IPD. In addition, putamen to caudate binding ratios were higher in the group of APS patients. In spite of these differences, individual binding values showed considerable overlap between the groups. CONCLUSION: [(123)I]beta-CIT SPECT scanning in early-stage, untreated parkinsonian patients revealed a relative sparing of the caudate nucleus in patients with IPD as compared to patients later (re)diagnosed with APS. Nevertheless, the pattern of striatal involvement appears to have little predictive value for a later re-diagnosis of APS in individual case

Optimal spare parts management for vessel maintenance scheduling

Condition-based monitoring is used as part of predictive maintenance to collect real-time information on the healthy status of a vessel engine, which allows for a more accurate estimation of the remaining life of an engine or its parts, as well as providing a warning for a potential failure of an engine part. An engine failure results in delays and down-times in the voyage of a vessel, which translates into additional cost and penalties. This paper studies a spare part management problem for maintenance scheduling of a vessel operating on a given route that is defined by a sequence of port visits. When a warning on part failure is received, the problem decides when and to which port each part should be ordered, where the latter is also the location at which the maintenance operation would be performed. The paper describes a mathematical programming model of the problem, as well as a shortest path dynamic programming formulation for a single part which solves the problem in polynomial time complexity. Simulation results are presented in which the models are tested under different scenarios

Investigations on the fertilization biology of some summer apple varieties [Bazi yazlik elma çeşitlerinin döllenme biyolojileri üzerinde araştirmalar]

In this study, fertilization biology of 3 summer apple varieties, namely "Summerred", "Jerseymac" and "Raritan", grown in Pozanti ecological conditions, was investigated. For this purpose, the pollen viability, germination capacity and production level of these 3 apple varieties were tested in vitro. The percentage of fruit-set obtained from free, self and cross-pollination experiments performed in vivo. In order to determine the parthenocarpic fruit setting ability, the flowers were emasculated and isolated. Additionally, the fruit-sizes were determined and the number of seeds per fruit were counted in all experiments. As far as the pollen viability, production level and morphological homogenity of pollen were concerned the "Raritan" variety gave the best results. In 20 % sucrose concentration, which is the best medium for all 3 varieties, pollen germination rates were changed between 54.32 % and 64.42 %. In vivo studies "Summerred" was found to be the best pollinator variety for "Jerseymac" and "Raritan". On the other hand "Raritan" was found to be the best polinator for "Summerred". In addition "Raritan" showed a limited ability to set parthenocarpic fruit whereas, other 2 varieties have no parthenocarpic fruit setting capacity

Investigations on the pollen viability, germination capability and production of pollen, pollen tube growth in some selected Turkish almond types and Texas cultivar under adana ecological conditions [Adana ekolojik koşullarinda denenen bazi seçilmiş badem tipleri ve Texas çeşidinde çiçek tozu canlilik çimlenme yetenegi ve üretim miktari ile çiçek tozu çim borusu büyümesi üzerinde araştirmalar]

In this research the fertilization biologies of mid and late flowering 4 almond types (101-9,101-13, 101-23 and 106-1) selected from different parts of Turkey and Texas cultivar were studied. For this purpose, first of all, pollen viability tests with TTC and FDA and pollen germination tests in 0 %, 5 %, 10%, 15 % and 20 % sucrose mediums by hanging drop method were performed. On the other hand, the amount of pollen production and their morphological homogenity levels were determined. In addition, besides self and open pollinations with cross pollinations the pollen tube growth rates were investigated. In pollen viability tests 106-1 and 101-9; in pollen germinating tests 106-1 and 101-13; in the determination of pollen production 101-13, 101-23 and Texas gave the highest values. Morphological homogenities were found high in all the types and Texas cultivar. In cross pollinations, pollen tubes reached the ovules in 5 to 12 days. In self pollinations, pollen tubes couldn't reach the ovules and stayed in different parts of the style