A Scoping Review on Wearable Devices for Environmental Monitoring and Their Application for Health and Wellness

This scoping review is focused on wearable devices for environmental monitoring. First, the main pollutants are presented, followed by sensing technologies that are used for the parameters of interest. Selected examples of wearables and portables are divided into commercially available and research-level projects. While many commercial products are in fact portable, there is an increasing interest in using a completely wearable technology. This allows us to correlate the pollution level to other personal information (performed activity, position, and respiratory parameters) and thus to estimate personal exposure to given pollutants. The fact that there are no univocal indices to estimate outdoor or indoor air quality is also an open problem. Finally, applications of wearables for environmental monitoring are discussed. Combining environmental monitoring with other devices would permit better choices of where to perform sports activities, especially in highly polluted areas, and provide detailed information on the living conditions of individuals

Machine learning predicts lung recruitment in acute respiratory distress syndrome using single lung CT scan

Background: To develop and validate classifier models that could be used to identify patients with a high percentage of potentially recruitable lung from readily available clinical data and from single CT scan quantitative analysis at intensive care unit admission. 221 retrospectively enrolled mechanically ventilated, sedated and paralyzed patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) underwent a PEEP trial at 5 and 15 cmH2O of PEEP and two lung CT scans performed at 5 and 45 cmH2O of airway pressure. Lung recruitability was defined at first as percent change in not aerated tissue between 5 and 45 cmH2O (radiologically defined; recruiters: Δ45-5non-aerated tissue > 15%) and secondly as change in PaO2 between 5 and 15 cmH2O (gas exchange-defined; recruiters: Δ15-5PaO2 > 24 mmHg). Four machine learning (ML) algorithms were evaluated as classifiers of radiologically defined and gas exchange-defined lung recruiters using different models including different variables, separately or combined, of lung mechanics, gas exchange and CT data. Results: ML algorithms based on CT scan data at 5 cmH2O classified radiologically defined lung recruiters with similar AUC as ML based on the combination of lung mechanics, gas exchange and CT data. ML algorithm based on CT scan data classified gas exchange-defined lung recruiters with the highest AUC. Conclusions: ML based on a single CT data at 5 cmH2O represented an easy-to-apply tool to classify ARDS patients in recruiters and non-recruiters according to both radiologically defined and gas exchange-defined lung recruitment within the first 48 h from the start of mechanical ventilation

Is renalase a novel player in catecholaminergic signaling? The mystery of the catalytic activity of an intriguing new flavoenzyme

Renalase is a flavoprotein recently discovered in humans, preferentially expressed in the proximal tubules of the kidney and secreted in blood and urine. It is highly conserved in vertebrates, with homologs identified in eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. Several genetic, epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies show that renalase plays a role in the modulation of the functions of the cardiovascular system, being particularly active in decreasing the catecholaminergic tone, in lowering blood pressure and in exerting a protective action against myocardial ischemic damage. Deficient renalase synthesis might be the cause of the high occurrence of hypertension and adverse cardiac events in kidney disease patients. Very recently, recombinant human renalase has been structurally and functionally characterized in vitro. Results show that it belongs to the p-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase structural family of flavoenzymes, contains non-covalently bound FAD with redox features suggestive of a dehydrogenase activity, and is not a catecholamine-degrading enzyme, either through oxidase or NAD(P)H-dependent monooxygenase reactions. The biochemical data now available will hopefully provide the basis for a systematic and rational quest toward the identification of the reaction catalyzed by renalase and of the molecular mechanism of its physiological action, which in turn are expected to favor the development of novel therapeutic tools for the treatment of kidney and cardiovascular diseases

Cellulose production is coupled to sensing of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway via c-di-GMP production by the DgcQ protein of Escherichia coli

Production of cellulose, a stress response-mediated process in enterobacteria, is modulated in Escherichia coli by the activity of the two pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthetic pathways, namely, the de novo biosynthetic pathway and the salvage pathway, which relies on the environmental availability of pyrimidine nitrogenous bases. We had previously reported that prevalence of the salvage over the de novo pathway triggers cellulose production via synthesis of the second messenger c-di-GMP by the DgcQ (YedQ) diguanylate cyclase. In this work, we show that DgcQ enzymatic activity is enhanced by UTP, whilst being inhibited by N-carbamoyl-aspartate, an intermediate of the de novo pathway. Thus, direct allosteric control by these ligands allows full DgcQ activity exclusively in cells actively synthesizing pyrimidine nucleotides via the salvage pathway. Inhibition of DgcQ activity by N-carbamoyl-aspartate appears to be favoured by protein-protein interaction between DgcQ and PyrB, a subunit of aspartate transcarbamylase, which synthesizes N-carbamoyl-aspartate. Our results suggest that availability of pyrimidine bases might be sensed, somehow paradoxically, as an environmental stress by E. coli. We hypothesize that this link might have evolved since stress events, leading to extensive DNA/RNA degradation or lysis of neighbouring cells, can result in increased pyrimidine concentrations and activation of the salvage pathway

Efecto del ácido clorhídrico y ácido láctico sobre el desarrollo de cepas de Listeria spp. aisladas de alimentos

Listeria puede desarrollar en un amplio rango de pH, tolerando medio ácido hasta pH 4.4. El objetivo fue estudiar in vitro el comportamiento de 30 cepas de Listeria spp. aisladas de alimentos (2 cepas de L. welshimeri, 4 L. seeligeri, 3 L. monocytogenes tipo 4, 8 L. monocytogenes tipo 1, y 13 L. innocua), modificando el pH por adición de HCl y ácido láctico.Mesa: Alimentos y Bebidas.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Comportamiento de 30 cepas de Listeria spp. aisladas de alimentos

Listeria monocytogenes es un patógeno que afecta a animales y humanos produciendo infecciones que pueden ser fatales en individuos susceptibles. Los alimentos son fuente de contaminación, siendo más riesgosos los listos para consumir. El objetivo fue estudiar el comportamiento de 30 cepas de Listeria spp. (2 cepas de L. welshimeri, 4 L. seeligeri, 3 L. monocytogenes tipo 4, 8 L. monocytogenes tipo 1, y 13 L. innocua) aisladas de alimentos principalmente en su mayoría embutidos, frente a diferentes condiciones que pueden presentarse en este tipo de productos.Mesa:Alimentos y VacunasFacultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Efecto del ácido clorhídrico y ácido láctico sobre el desarrollo de cepas de Listeria spp. aisladas de alimentos

Listeria puede desarrollar en un amplio rango de pH, tolerando medio ácido hasta pH 4.4. El objetivo fue estudiar in vitro el comportamiento de 30 cepas de Listeria spp. aisladas de alimentos (2 cepas de L. welshimeri, 4 L. seeligeri, 3 L. monocytogenes tipo 4, 8 L. monocytogenes tipo 1, y 13 L. innocua), modificando el pH por adición de HCl y ácido láctico.Mesa: Alimentos y Bebidas.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

A participatory process to design an app to improve adherence to anti-osteoporotic therapies: A development and usability study

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop an app to improve patients’ adherence to therapy for osteoporosis and to test its usability. Methods: In Phase I, the app functions needed to improve medication adherence were identified through a focus group with six patients with osteoporosis and a joint interview with two bone specialists. The app prototype was then developed (Phase II) and refined after its feasibility testing (Phase III) for 13–25 days by eight patients. Finally, the app underwent usability testing (Phase IV) for 6 months by nine other patients. The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) was used to collect the assessment of the app by the 17 patients. Results: The final version of the app provided information on osteoporosis, allowed patients to contact the bone specialist for an additional consultation, and generated a reminder for taking medications accompanied by feedback on adherence. The assessment of the app was positive but evaluations differed between the feasibility and usability testing, with the former displaying a significantly (p ≤.05) better assessment across all MAUQ items. Conclusions: In this study, we tested an app for improving adherence to medical therapies in patients with osteoporosis. The usability testing revealed a lower “patient-centered” performance of the app as compared to that observed during the feasibility phase. Future developments of the study include increasing the testing cohort and adding a technical support during the usability testing

The crystal structure of FdxA, a 7Fe ferredoxin from Mycobacterium smegmatis

Mycobacterium smegmatis ferredoxin FdxA, which has an orthologue ferredoxin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, FdxC, contains both one [3Fe-4S] and one [4Fe-4S] cluster. M. smegmatis FdxA has been shown to be a preferred ferredoxin substrate of FprA [F. Fischer, D. Raimondi, A. Aliverti, G. Zanetti, Mycobacterium tuberculosis FprA, a novel bacterial NADPH-ferredoxin reductase, Eur. J. Biochem. 269 (2002) 3005-3013], an adrenodoxin reductase-like flavoprotein of M. tuberculosis, suggesting that M. tuberculosis FdxC could be the physiological partner of the enzyme in providing reducing power to the cytochromes P450. We report here the crystal structure of FdxA at 1.6A resolution (R(factor) 16.5%, R(free) 20.2%). Besides providing an insight on protein architecture for this 106-residue ferredoxin, our crystallographic investigation highlights lability of the [4Fe-4S] center, which is shown to loose a Fe atom during crystal growth. Due to their high similarity (87% sequence identity), the structure here reported can be considered a valuable model for M. tuberculosis FdxC, thus representing a step forward in the study of the complex mycobacterial redox pathways