We recommend high quality research on dropout due to physical health problems, as well as on the prevention/treatment of physical complaints. OBJECTIVE This study aims to analyze the presence of oxidative stress and activity of the antioxidant system in the parotid and submandibular salivary glands of rats with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). DESIGN Sixteen male wistar rats were divided into two groups (n = 8, each) control rats and rats with CKD. CKD was induced by 5/6 nephrectomy. Blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine clearance were quantified. Malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, catalase, total antioxidant status, ascorbic acid, α-tocopherol, superoxide anion, and hydrogen peroxide concentrations were assessed. RESULTS In CKD rats, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, and proteinuria concentrations were increased, while creatinine clearance was reduced. In the submandibular gland, superoxide anion concentration was increased significantly (p less then 0.05). Hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion concentrations were reduced in the parotid gland. CKD rats presented increased malondialdehyde concentration, total antioxidant status, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione reductase activities only in the parotid gland (p less then 0.05). CONCLUSION Oxidative stress and changes in the antioxidant system were found in the parotid and submandibular salivary glands in an experimental model of CKD induced by 5/6 nephrectomy. Carbon aerogels are 3D hierarchical multiscale porous materials with outstanding physicochemical properties such as high specific surface area, low density, high porosity, excellent electrical conductor, good chemical stability, hydrophobicity, and adjustable surface chemistry among others. Unlike conventional carbon aerogels, biomass-based carbon aerogels are economical, environmentally friendly and have nigh inexhaustible precursors, which have generated extensive interest and exhibited outstanding electrocatalysis and adsorption/absorption performance. In this review, we mainly summarized the four main kinds of biomass (cellulose, chitosan, lignin and tannin) as carbon aerogel precursor, and discussed in detail their resource, constitute and optimized synthesis mechanism. Further advice was also given for better utilization of biomass as carbon aerogel precursors. PURPOSE To investigate the impact of four-dimensional robust optimization (4DRO) on dose delivered to lung cancer patients in pencil beam scanning proton therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS 2 strategies were compared for 20 lung cancer patients, using a different number of breathing phases of the reconstructed 4D computed tomography (CT) included in the plan optimization problem. In the restricted approach combined with gating, only 3 phases close to reference end-exhale were considered instead of the whole breathing cycle. The prescribed dose was 60 Gy(RBE) in 10 fractions. Target coverage (D98%) and dose to healthy tissues were evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. To assess the robustness against interfractional anatomical and respiratory variations, the optimized plans were recalculated on re-evaluation 4DCTs. To compare the sensitivity of both strategies to interplay effects, we implemented an end-to-end test with a home-made heterogeneous moving phantom and ionization chambers measurements. Robustly optimized plans with prescription doses of 6 Gy(RBE) were delivered in different dynamic conditions. RESULTS Both 4D robustly optimized plans reached the same target coverage (p = 0.56), while a statistically significant decrease of the homolateral lung dose was observed using the restricted approach (p  less then  0.0001). Plan recalculations within 15 days from the treatment simulation showed the same robustness of target D98% against interfractional variations (p = 0.48), with an average decrease of approximately 3 Gy(RBE). Phantom measurements confirmed the delivery accuracy of the restricted approach (mean dose deviations less then 5%). Higher deviations were found for ungated full 4DRO and larger motion amplitude. CONCLUSION The restricted approach combined with gating improved normal tissue sparing and was shown to be more robust to single fraction deliveries and large motion amplitude. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Proton radiotherapy offers the potential to reduce normal tissue toxicity. However, clinical safety margins, range uncertainties, and varying relative biological effectiveness (RBE) may result in a critical dose in tumor-surrounding normal tissue. To assess potential adverse effects in preclinical studies, image-guided proton mouse brain irradiation and analysis of DNA damage repair was established. MATERIAL AND METHODS We designed and characterized a setup to shape proton beams with 7 mm range in water and 3 mm in diameter and commissioned a Monte Carlo model for in vivo dose simulation. Cone-beam computed tomography and orthogonal X-ray imaging were used to delineate the right hippocampus and position the mice. The brains of three C3H/HeNRj mice were irradiated with 8 Gy and excised 30 min later. Initial DNA double-strand breaks were visualized by staining brain sections for cell nuclei and γH2AX. Imaged sections were analyzed with an automated and validated processing pipeline to provide a quantitative, spatially resolved radiation damage indicator. RESULTS The analyzed DNA damage pattern clearly visualized the radiation effect in the mouse brains and could be mapped to the simulated dose distribution. The proton beam passed the right hippocampus and stopped in the central brain region for all evaluated mice. CONCLUSION We established image-guided proton irradiation of mouse brains. The clinically oriented workflow facilitates (back-) translational studies. Geometric accuracy, detailed Monte Carlo dose simulations, and cell-based assessment enable a biologically and spatially resolved analysis of radiation response and RBE. Chromoplasts are the colored plastids that synthesize and store massive amounts of carotenoids. Chromoplast number and size define the sink strength for carotenoid accumulation in plants. Yet nothing is known about the mechanisms controlling chromoplast number. Previously, we showed that a natural allele of Orange (OR), ORHis, promotes carotenoid accumulation by activating chromoplast differentiation and increasing carotenoid biosynthesis. Sodium acrylate in vivo However, orange tissues in melon fruit and cauliflower OR mutant have only one or two enlarged chromoplasts. Here, we investigated an ORHis variant of Arabidopsis OR, genetically mimicking the melon ORHis allele, and found that it also constrains chromoplast number in Arabidopsis calli. Both in vitro and in vivo evidences demonstrate that ORHis specifically interacts with the Membrane Occupation and Recognition Nexus (MORN) domain of ACCUMULATION AND REPLICATION OF CHLOROPLASTS3 (ARC3), a crucial regulator of chloroplast division. ORHis was further shown to interfere with the interaction between ARC3 and PARALOG OF ARC6 (PARC6), another key regulator of chloroplast division, suggesting a role of ORHis in competing with PARC6 for binding to ARC3 to restrict chromoplast number.