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Summary: Purpose:The optimal management of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) with epileptic seizures is still a matter of debate. The aim of our study was to examine seizure outcome in the largest published series of surgically treated patients with epilepsy due to a supratentorial CCM, and to define predictors for good surgical outcome.Methods: We retrospectively studied 168 consecutive patients with a single supratentorial CCM and symptomatic epilepsy in a multicenter study. Pre-and postoperative clinical examinations, age at epilepsy onset, age at operation, type of symptoms due to the CCM (seizures, headache, hemorrhage, focal deficits), type and frequency of epileptic seizures, and the localization and size of the CCM were assessed. Seizure outcome was determined in the first, second, and third postoperative years. Results:The CCM was completely resected in all patients. More than two thirds of the patients were classified as seizure free in the first 3 postoperative years. Predictors for good seizure outcome were age older than 30 years at the time of surgery, mesiotemporal CCM localization, CCM size <1.5 cm, and the absence of secondarily generalized seizures. No mortality occurred in our series, but only mild postoperative neurologic deficits in 12 (7%) patients.Conclusions: Considering the natural history of CCMs, the favorable neurologic and seizure outcome, surgical resection of CCMs should be considered in all patients with supratentorial CCMs and concomitant epilepsy, irrespective of the presence or absence of predictors for a favorable seizure outcome.

The use of successive generations of beta-lactams has selected successive generations of beta-lactamases including CTX-M ESBLs, AmpC beta-lactamases, and KPC carbapenamases in Enterobacteriaceae. Moreover, this cephalosporin resistance, along with rising resistance to fluoroquinolones, is now driving the use of carbapenems and unfortunately the carbapenem resistance has emerged markedly, especially in Acinetobacter spp. due to OXA- and metallo-carbapenemases. The industry responded to the challenge of rising resistance and recently developed some novel beta-lactams such as ceftobiprole, ceftaroline etc. and many beta-lactam compounds, including beta-lactamase-inhibitors, such as BMS-247243, S-3578, RWJ-54428, CS-023, SMP-601, NXL 104, BAL 30376, LK 157, and so on are under trials. This review provides the comprehensive accounts of the developments in penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems, and beta-lactamase-inhibitors, and the insight about medicinal chemistry, mechanism(s) of action and resistance, potential strategies to overcome resistance due to beta-lactamases, and also the recent advancements in the development of newer beta-lactam compounds; some of which are still under trials and yet to be classified. This review will fill the gap since previously published reviews and will serve as a comprehensive update on the current topic.

Abiotic stresses, including drought and salinity, negatively affect plant development and physiology at molecular and metabolic levels. Sucrose transport, mediating distribution of photosynthates in plant, is a key physiological process impacted by drought and salinity stresses, as sucrose is a prime energy and signaling molecule as well as an osmolyte. Therefore, understanding the effects of abiotic stresses on sucrose transport and transporters, and underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms, is imperative to maintain sugar homeostasis in plants under stress. Here, we investigated the effects of drought and salinity stresses on sucrose transport and distribution, and on expression levels of genes encoding Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs), along with a potential transcription factor regulating SWEET expression in rice. We observed that drought and salinity stresses increased the sucrose content in leaf and root tissues and in phloem sap of rice indica varieties. Expression analyses of SWEET genes and histochemical analysis of β‐glucuronidase‐reporter transgenic plants suggested that OsSWEET13 and OsSWEET15 are major SWEET transporters regulating the sucrose transport and levels in response to the abiotic stresses. Transactivation analyses showed that an abscisic acid (ABA)‐responsive transcription factor OsbZIP72 directly binds to the promoters of OsSWEET13 and OsSWEET15 and activates their expression. Taken together, the results showed that the higher expressions of OsSWEET13 and OsSWEET15 genes, induced by binding of an ABA‐responsive transcription factor OsbZIP72 to the promoters, potentially modulate sucrose transport and distribution in response to the abiotic stresses. The mechanism could possibly be targeted for maintaining sugar homeostasis in rice under drought and salinity stresses.