Week of remembrance for the suffering of Jews of Pirot "We have not forgotten you", March 2023.

7. marta 2023. godine u Galeriji “Čedomir Krstić” u Pirotu, otvorena je izložba "80 godina od stradanja pirotskih Jevreja", autora Predraga M. Vidanovića. Time je počela “Nedelja sećanja” na hapšenje, deportaciju i stradanje Jevreje u Pirotu, u organizaciji Gradske uprave Pirot, Udruženja istoričara Pirota, Istorijskog arhiva u Pirotu i Jevrejske opštine Niš. 10. marta 2023. godine, u celom pirotskom okrugu u svim osnovnim i srednjim školama, na početku prvog časa pročitan je kratak tekst o stradanju Jevreja u Pirotu. Tog dana u Svečanoj sali Gimnazije organizovane su edukativne radionice i predavanja na temu Holokausta i stradanja pirotskih Jevreja. 11. marta 2023. godine, održana je “Šetnja sećanja” učenika i građanstva od Sokolane Gimnazije Pirot do Železničke stanice, uz simbolično polaganje cveća na mesto odakle su deportovani pirotski Jevreji. Šetnju je predvodio gospodin Izrael Levi, rođen u Pirotu 1939. godine koga je od progona i stradanja spasio Piroćanac Ljuba Ljubenović. 13. marta 2023. godine u Velikoj sali Gradske uprave Pirot, održana je ceremonija dodele “Medalje pravednika među nacijama”.On March 7, 2023, in the "Čedomir Krstić" Gallery in Pirot, the exhibition "80 years of the suffering of the Jews of the Pirot", by Predrag M. Vidanović, was opened. This marked the beginning of the "Remembrance Week" for the arrest, deportation and suffering of the Jews in Pirot, organized by the City Administration of Pirot, the Association of Historians of Pirot, the Historical Archive in Pirot and the Jewish Municipality of Niš. On March 10, 2023, a short text about the suffering of the Jews in Pirot was read at the beginning of the first lesson in the entire Pirot district in all primary and secondary schools. On that day, educational workshops and lectures on the topic of the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jews of Pirot were organized in the High School's Ceremonial Hall. On March 11, 2023, a "Walk of Remembrance" was held by students and citizens from Sokolana Gymnasium Pirot to the Railway Station, with a symbolic putting of flowers at the place where the Jews of Pirot were deported. The walk was led by Mr Izrael Levi, born in Pirot in 1939, who was saved from persecution and suffering by Ljuba Ljubenović, a native of Pirot. On March 13, 2023, in the Great Hall of the City Administration of Pirot, the "Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations" awarding ceremony was held

The Bray-Liebhafsky oscillatory reaction: Kinetic investigations in reduction and oxidation pathways based on hydrogen peroxide concentration monitoring

By direct monitoring of the hydrogen concentration during its catalytic decomposition into water and oxygen in the presence of potassium iodate and sulfuric acid, that is in the Bray-Liebhafsky system, the pseudo-rate constants of overall reduction and oxidation pathways were determined The dependence of the obtained rate constants on acidity was evaluated. It was found that the pseudo-rate constant of the overall reduction process increases with increasing acidity, whereas the pseudo-rate constant of the overall oxidation process decreases with increasing acidity. The corresponding activation energies were also calculated using values of this constant at two temperatures.Direktnim praćenjem koncentracije vodonik-peroksida u toku njegovog katalitičkog razlaganja na vodu i kiseonik u prisustvu kalijum-jodata i sumporne kiseline, odnosno u Bray-Lievhafsky sistemu, analizirane su konstante brzina celokupnog redukcionog i oksidacionog puta kao konstante brzina pseudo-prvog reda. izvedene su njihove zavisnosti od kiselosti. Nađeno je da pseudo-konstanta brzine celokupnog redukcionog procesa raste sa porastom kiselosti, dok pseudo-konstanta brzine celokupnog oksidacionog procesa opada sa porastom kiselosti. korišćenjem njihovih vrednosti na dve temperature izračunate su odgovarajuće energije aktivacija

Exploring the Secretomes of Microbes and Microbial Communities Using Filamentous Phage Display (vol 7, 429, 2016)

Microbial surface and secreted proteins (the secretome) contain a large number of proteins that interact with other microbes, host and/or environment. These proteins are exported by the coordinated activities of the protein secretion machinery present in the cell. A group of bacteriophage, called filamentous phage, have the ability to hijack bacterial protein secretion machinery in order to amplify and assemble via a secretion-like process. This ability has been harnessed in the use of filamentous phage of Escherichia coli in biotechnology applications, including screening large libraries of variants for binding to “bait” of interest, from tissues in vivo to pure proteins or even inorganic substrates. In this review we discuss the roles of secretome proteins in pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and corresponding secretion pathways. We describe the basics of phage display technology and its variants applied to discovery of bacterial proteins that are implicated in colonization of host tissues and pathogenesis, as well as vaccine candidates through filamentous phage display library screening. Secretome selection aided by next-generation sequence analysis was successfully applied for selective display of the secretome at a microbial community scale, the latter revealing the richness of secretome functions of interest and surprising versatility in filamentous phage display of secretome proteins from large number of Gram-negative as well as Gram-positive bacteria and archaea

Exploring the Secretomes of Microbes and Microbial Communities Using Filamentous Phage Display

Microbial surface and secreted proteins (the secretome) contain a large number of proteins that interact with other microbes, host and/or environment. These proteins are exported by the coordinated activities of the protein secretion machinery present in the cell. A group of bacteriophage, called filamentous phage, have the ability to hijack bacterial protein secretion machinery in order to amplify and assemble via a secretion-like process. This ability has been harnessed in the use of filamentous phage of Escherichia coli in biotechnology applications, including screening large libraries of variants for binding to "bait" of interest, from tissues in vivo to pure proteins or even inorganic substrates. In this review we discuss the roles of secretome proteins in pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and corresponding secretion pathways. We describe the basics of phage display technology and its variants applied to discovery of bacterial proteins that are implicated in colonization of host tissues and pathogenesis, as well as vaccine candidates through filamentous phage display library screening. Secretome selection aided by next-generation sequence analysis was successfully applied for selective display of the secretome at a microbial community scale, the latter revealing the richness of secretome functions of interest and surprising versatility in filamentous phage display of secretome proteins from large number of Gram-negative as well as Gram-positive bacteria and archaea

Alterations of Sleep and Sleep Oscillations in the Hemiparkinsonian Rat.

Our previous studies in the rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD) cholinopathy demonstrated the sleep-related alterations in electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations at the cortical and hippocampal levels, cortical drives, and sleep spindles (SSs) as the earliest functional biomarkers preceding hypokinesia. Our aim in this study was to follow the impact of a unilateral substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) lesion in rat on the cortical and hippocampal sleep architectures and their EEG microstructures, as well as the cortico-hippocampal synchronizations of EEG oscillations, and the SS and high voltage sleep spindle (HVS) dynamics during NREM and REM sleep. We performed unilateral SNpc lesions using two different concentrations/volumes of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA; 12 μg/1 μl or 12 μg/2 μl). Whereas the unilateral dopaminergic neuronal loss >50% throughout the overall SNpc rostro-caudal dimension prolonged the Wake state, with no change in the NREM or REM duration, there was a long-lasting theta amplitude augmentation across all sleep states in the motor cortex (MCx), but also in the CA1 hippocampus (Hipp) during both Wake and REM sleep. We demonstrate that SS are the hallmarks of NREM sleep, but that they also occur during REM sleep in the MCx and Hipp of the control rats. Whereas SS are always longer in REM vs. NREM sleep in both structures, they are consistently slower in the Hipp. The dopaminergic neuronal loss increased the density of SS in both structures and shortened them in the MCx during NREM sleep, without changing the intrinsic frequency. Conversely, HVS are the hallmarks of REM sleep in the control rats, slower in the Hipp vs. MCx, and the dopaminergic neuronal loss increased their density in the MCx, but shortened them more consistently in the Hipp during REM sleep. In addition, there was an altered synchronization of the EEG oscillations between the MCx and Hipp in different sleep states, particularly the theta and sigma coherences during REM sleep. We provide novel evidence for the importance of the SNpc dopaminergic innervation in sleep regulation, theta rhythm generation, and SS/HVS dynamics control. We suggest the importance of the underlying REM sleep regulatory substrate to HVS generation and duration and to the cortico-hippocampal synchronizations of EEG oscillations in hemiparkinsonian rats

The Bray-Liebhafsky oscillatory reaction: Kinetic investigations in reduction and oxidation pathways based on hydrogen peroxide concentration monitoring

By direct monitoring of the hydrogen concentration during its catalytic decomposition into water and oxygen in the presence of potassium iodate and sulfuric acid, that is in the Bray-Liebhafsky system, the pseudo-rate constants of overall reduction and oxidation pathways were determined The dependence of the obtained rate constants on acidity was evaluated. It was found that the pseudo-rate constant of the overall reduction process increases with increasing acidity, whereas the pseudo-rate constant of the overall oxidation process decreases with increasing acidity. The corresponding activation energies were also calculated using values of this constant at two temperatures.Direktnim praćenjem koncentracije vodonik-peroksida u toku njegovog katalitičkog razlaganja na vodu i kiseonik u prisustvu kalijum-jodata i sumporne kiseline, odnosno u Bray-Lievhafsky sistemu, analizirane su konstante brzina celokupnog redukcionog i oksidacionog puta kao konstante brzina pseudo-prvog reda. izvedene su njihove zavisnosti od kiselosti. Nađeno je da pseudo-konstanta brzine celokupnog redukcionog procesa raste sa porastom kiselosti, dok pseudo-konstanta brzine celokupnog oksidacionog procesa opada sa porastom kiselosti. korišćenjem njihovih vrednosti na dve temperature izračunate su odgovarajuće energije aktivacija

Effect of different sodium butyrate levels in weaned pig diet on the antioxidant capacity of selected organs

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different sodium butyrate levels on the antioxidant capacity of selected organs (liver and kidney) in pigs. The study was conducted on 48 weaned piglets (28 to 54 days old) fed one of three diets (group C had no added sodium butyrate, group E-I had 3 g and group E-II 5 g of sodium butyrate added per kg of diet). The guaiacol peroxidase and pyrogallol peroxidase activities in liver tissues of E-II pigs were significantly lower than those in E-I pigs, while the activities of these enzymes in kidney tissues were significantly lower than in control pigs for both butyrate levels. Glutathione peroxidase activity in liver tissues was not upregulated by either level of dietary sodium butyrate. Also, the contents of malondialdehyde, indicative of lipid peroxidation, were not significantly different among the pig dietary groups. No significant differences in the enzyme activities (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione S-transferase or the oxidation product, reduced glutathione) of control pigs and of animals consuming 3 g or 5 g sodium butyrate per kg of diet was found. The results showed that oral administration of sodium butyrate had an impact only on guaiacol peroxidase and pyrogallol peroxidase enzyme activities

Sleep spindles as an early biomarker of REM sleep disorder in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease cholinopathy

Rhythmic oscillations of neuronal populations, generated by different mechanisms, are present at several levels of the central nervous system and serve many important physiological or reflect pathological functions. Understanding the role of brain oscillations as possible biomarkers of brain function and plasticity is still a challenge, and despite extensive research, their role is still not well established. We recently demonstrated that the hallmarks of earlier aging onset during impaired thalamo-cortical cholinergic innervation (in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease cholinopathy) were consistently expressed, from 3 and one half to 5 and one half months of age, through increased electroencephalographic (EEG) sigma activity amplitude during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, as a unique aging induced REM sleep phenomenon. In addition, there was altered motor cortical drive during non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) and REM sleep. In order to explain this new aging-induced REM sleep phenomenon, we analyzed possible differences between control REM sleep spindle activity and REM sleep spindle activity at the onset of REM sleep “enriched“ with sigma activity (at 4 and one half months of age), following bilateral pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPT) cholinergic neuronal loss in the rat. We analzyed differences in spindle density, duration, and frequency. We demonstrated in young adult Wistar rats with the severely impaired PPT cholinergic innervation the alterations in sleep spindle dynamics and pattern during REM sleep in the motor cortex as the earliest biomarkers for the onset of their altered aging processes

Metasecretome-selective phage display approach for mining the functional potential of a rumen microbial community

Background: In silico, secretome proteins can be predicted from completely sequenced genomes using various available algorithms that identify membrane-targeting sequences. For metasecretome (collection of surface, secreted and transmembrane proteins from environmental microbial communities) this approach is impractical, considering that the metasecretome open reading frames (ORFs) comprise only 10% to 30% of total metagenome, and are poorly represented in the dataset due to overall low coverage of metagenomic gene pool, even in large-scale projects. Results: By combining secretome-selective phage display and next-generation sequencing, we focused the sequence analysis of complex rumen microbial community on the metasecretome component of the metagenome. This approach achieved high enrichment (29 fold) of secreted fibrolytic enzymes from the plant-adherent microbial community of the bovine rumen. In particular, we identified hundreds of heretofore rare modules belonging to cellulosomes, cell-surface complexes specialised for recognition and degradation of the plant fibre. Conclusions: As a method, metasecretome phage display combined with next-generation sequencing has a power to sample the diversity of low-abundance surface and secreted proteins that would otherwise require exceptionally large metagenomic sequencing projects. As a resource, metasecretome display library backed by the dataset obtained by next-generation sequencing is ready for i) affinity selection by standard phage display methodology and ii) easy purification of displayed proteins as part of the virion for individual functional analysis