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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2022

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Abstract

Background Inflammation is a double-edged sword in the pathophysiology of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The global rise in the prevalence of T2DM in one hand, and poor disease control with currently-available treatments on the other hand, along with an increased tendency towards the use of natural products make scientists seek herbal medicines for the management of diabetes and its complications by reducing C-reactive protein (CRP) as an inflammatory marker. Purpose To systematically review the literature to identify the efficacy of various medicinal plants with antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties considering their effect on CRP in animal models of T2DM. Study design systematic review. Methods Electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochran Library were searched using the search terms “herbal medicine”, “diabetes”, “c-reactive protein”, “antioxidants” till August 2021. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory animal Experimentation (SYRCLE's) tool. The study protocol was registered in PROSPERO with an ID number CRD42020207190. A manual search to detect any articles not found in the databases was also made. The identified studies were then critically reviewed and relevant data were extracted and summarized. Results Among total of 9904 primarily-retrieved articles, twenty-three experimental studies were finally included. Our data indicated that numerous herbal medicines, compared to placebo or hypoglycemic medications, are effective in treatment of diabetes and its complications through decreasing CRP concentrations and oxidative stresses levels. Medicinal plants including Psidium guajava L., Punica granatum L., Ginkgo biloba L., Punica granatum L., Dianthus superbusn L.. Moreover, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, Curcuma longa L., Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Morus alba L., and Ficus racemosa L. demonstrated potential neuroprotective effects in animal models of diabetes. Conclusion Hypoglycemic medicinal plants discussed in this review seem to be promising regulators of CRP, and oxidative stress. Thus, these plants are suitable candidates for management of diabetes’ complications. Nevertheless, further high-quality in vivo studies and clinical trials are required to confirm these effects.

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Abstract

Modern apple orchard systems should guarantee homogeneity of fruit internal and external qualities and fruit maturity parameters. However, when orchards reach productive age, a variation of these parameters takes place and mostly it is related to uneven light distribution within the tree canopy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the canopy position’s effect on fruit internal and external quality parameters. This is the first study where all the main fruit quality and maturation parameters were evaluated on the same trees and were related to the light conditions and photosynthetic parameters. Four fruit positions were tested: top of the apple tree, lower inside part of the canopy, and east and west sides of the apple tree. Fruit quality variability was significant for fruit size, blush, colour indices, total sugar content, dry matter concentration, accumulation of secondary metabolites and radical scavenging activity. Fruit position in the canopy did not affect flesh firmness and fruit maturity parameters such as the starch index, Streif index and respiration rate. At the Lithuanian geographical location (55°60′ N), significantly, the highest fruit quality was achieved at the top of the apple tree. The tendency was established that apple fruits from the west side of the canopy have better fruit quality than from the east side and it could be related to better light conditions at the west side of the tree. Inside the canopy, fruits were distinguished only by the higher accumulation of triterpenic compounds and higher content of malic acid. Light is a main factor of fruit quality variation, thus all orchard management practices, including narrow two-dimensional tree canopies and reflecting ground covers which improve light penetration through the tree canopy, should be applied.

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Abstract

Satellite Rainfall Products (SRPs) are now in widespread use around the world as a better alternative for scarce observed rain gauge data. Upon proper analysis of the SRPs and observed rainfall data, SRP data can be used in many hydrological applications. This evaluation is very much necessary since, it had been found that their performances vary with different areas of interest. This research looks at the three prominent river basins; Malwathu, Deduru, and Kalu of Sri Lanka and evaluates six selected SRPs, namely, IMERG, TRMM 3B42, TRMM 3B42-RT, PERSIANN, PERSIANN-CCS, PERSIANN-CDR against 15+ years of observed rainfall data with the use of several indices. Four Continuous Evaluation Indices (CEI) such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Percentage Bias (PBIAS), Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (r), and Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) were used to evaluate the accuracy of SRPs and four Categorical Indices (CI) namely, Probability of Detection (POD), Critical Success Index (CSI), False Alarm Ratio (FAR) and Proportion Correct (PC) was used to evaluate the detection and prediction accuracy of the SRPs. Then, the Mann–Kendall Test (MK test) was used to identify trends in the datasets and Theil’s and Sens Slope Estimator to quantify the trends observed. The study of categorical indicators yielded varying findings, with TRMM-3B42 performing well in the dry zone and IMERG doing well in the wet zone and intermediate zone of Sri Lanka. Regarding the CIs in the three basins, overall, IMERG was the most reliable. In general, all three basins had similar POD and PC findings. The SRPs, however, underperformed in the dry zone in terms of CSI and FAR. Similar findings were found in the CEI analysis, as IMERG gave top performance across the board for all four CEIs in the three basins. The three basins’ overall weakest performer was PERSIANN-CCS. The trend analysis revealed that there were very few significant trends in the observed data. Even when significant trends were apparent, the SRP projections seldom captured them. TRMM-3B42 RT had the best trend prediction performance. However, Sen’s slope analysis revealed that while the sense of the trend was properly anticipated, the amplitude of the prediction significantly differed from that of the observed data.