Performances of a Newly High Sensitive Trilayer F/Cu/F GMI Sensor

We have selected stress-annealed nanocrystalline Fe-based ribbons for ferromagnetic/copper/ferromagnetic sensors exhibiting high magneto-impedance ratio. Longitudinal magneto-impedance reaches 400% at 60 kHz and longitudinal magneto-resistance increases up to 1300% around 200 kHz.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Sensors and Actuators A (in review

Production and characterization of a novel yeast extracellular invertase activity towards improved dibenzothiophene biodesulfurization

The main goal of this work was the production and characterization of a novel invertase activity from Zygosaccharomyces bailii strain Talf1 for further application to biodesulfurization (BDS) in order to expand the exploitable alternative carbon sources to renewable sucrose-rich feedstock. The maximum invertase activity (163 U ml.1) was achieved after 7 days of Z. bailii strain Talf1 cultivation at pH 5.5–6.0, 25 °C, and 150 rpm in Yeast Malt Broth with 25 % Jerusalem artichoke pulp as inducer substrate. The optimum pH and temperature for the crude enzyme activity were 5.5 and 50 °C, respectively, and moreover, high stability was observed at 30 °C for pH 5.5–6.5. The application of Talf1 crude invertase extract (1 %) to a BDS process by Gordonia alkanivorans strain 1B at 30 °C and pH 7.5 was carried out through a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) approach in which 10 g l.1 sucrose and 250 ìM dibenzothiophene were used as sole carbon and sulfur sources, respectively. Growth and desulfurization profiles were evaluated and compared with those of BDS without invertase addition. Despite its lower stability at pH 7.5 (loss of activity within 24 h), Talf1 invertase was able to catalyze the full hydrolysis of 10 g l.1 sucrose in culture medium into invert sugar, contributing to a faster uptake of the monosaccharides by strain 1B during BDS. In SSF approach, the desulfurizing bacterium increased its ìmax from 0.035 to 0.070 h.1 and attained a 2-hydroxybiphenyl productivity of 5.80 ìM/h in about 3 days instead of 7 days, corresponding to an improvement of 2.6-fold in relation to the productivity obtained in BDS process without invertase addition

Characterization of a rare analphoid supernumerary marker chromosome in mosaic

Abstract publicado em: Chromosome Research. 2015;23(Suppl 1):67-8. doi:10.1007/s10577-015-9476-6Analphoid supernumerary marker chromosomes (SMCs) are a rare subclass of SMCs C-band-negative and devoid of alpha-satellite DNA. These marker chromosomes cannot be identified unambiguously by conventional banding techniques alone being necessary to apply molecular cytogenetic methods in favour of a detailed characterization. In this work we report an analphoid SMC involving the terminal long arm of chromosome 7, in 9 years-old boy with several dysmorphic features and severe development delay. Cytogenetic analysis revealed a mosaic karyotype with the presence of an extra SMC, de novo, in 20 % of lymphocytes and 73 % of fibroblast cells. FISH analysis with alpha-satellite probes for all chromosomes, whole chromosome painting probe for chromosome 7, and D7S427 and TelVysion 7q probes, allowed establishing the origin of the SMC as an analphoidmarker resulting of an invdup rearrangement of 7q36-qter region. Affimetrix CytoScan HD microarray analysis, redefined the SMC to arr[hg19] 7q35(143696249-159119707)×2~3, which correspond to a gain of 15.42 Mb and encloses 67 OMIM genes, 16 of which are associated to disease. This result, combined with detailed clinical description, will provide an important means for better genotype-phenotype correlation and a more suitable genetic counselling to the patient and his parents, despite the additional difficulty resulting from being a mosaic (expression varies in different tissues). Analphoid SMCs derived from chromosome 7 are very rare, with only three cases reported so far. With this case we hope contribute to a better understanding of this type of chromosome rearrangements which are difficult for genetic counselling