Cytotoxic effect against 3T3 fibroblasts cells of saffron floral bio-residues extracts

For every kilogram of saffron spice produced, about 63 kg of floral bio-residues (FB) (tepals, stamens and styles) are thrown away. Extracts of these bio-residues in water (W1), water:HCl (100:1, v/v) (W2), ethanol (E3), ethanol:HCl (100:1, v/v) (E4), dichloromethane (D5) and hexane (H6) were prepared. Their composition in flavonols and anthocyanins, and their effect on cell viability were determined. W1 was the richest in kaempferol 3-sophoroside (30.34 mg/g dry FB) and delphinidin 3,5-diglucoside (15.98 mg/g dry FB). The highest tested concentration (900 μg/ml) of W1, W2, E4, D5 and H6 did not significantly decrease the cell viability. Only E3 at that concentration caused a significant decrease of 38% in the cell viability. Therefore, all extracts studied are not cytotoxic at concentrations lower than 900 μg/ml, and W1 is proposed as the optimal for food applications due to its greater contribution of phenolic compounds

Intrauterine infusion of platelet-rich plasma for severe Asherman syndrome: a cutting-edge approach

Asherman syndrome (AS) consists of intrauterine adhesions development as a consequence of trauma, radiation, or infection in the endometrium. Clinical symptoms include menstrual alterations, infertility, and pregnancy complications, such as recurrent pregnancy loss or abnormal placentation. In this article, we performed a narrative review of the literature, searching electronic databases (i.e., Medline, Pubmed, and Google Scholar) to summarize the available pieces of evidence about epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of AS. Hysteroscopy is essential for diagnosis and treatment, although adhesions may recur. Different postoperative therapies have been proposed to prevent recurrence and restore impaired endometrial function and promote endometrial regeneration, although these effects are usually temporary. We report a case of AS with adhesion recurrence and endometrial atrophy who was successfully treated with intrauterine autologous platelet–rich plasma (PRP) infusion. This therapy allowed endometrial tissue regeneration, leading to increased vascularity and endometrium thickness, and restoration of endometrial function that led to a successful pregnancy. Though there is limited experience supporting the use of PRP to improve endometrial function, it has been safely used in other fields of medicine; besides, it is easy to obtain, not expensive, and harmless being an autologous source. Future studies are encouraged to further assess this approach to treat AS

Trophic consequences of introduced species: comparative impacts of increased inter-specific versus intra-specific competitive interactions

1. Invasive species can cause substantial ecological impacts on native biodiversity. Whilst ecological theory attempts to explain the processes involved in the trophic integration of invaders into native food webs and their competitive impacts on resident species, results are equivocal. In addition, quantifying the relative strength of impacts from non-native species (inter-specific competition) versus the release of native conspecifics (intra-specific competition) is important but rarely completed. 2. Two model non-native fishes, the globally invasive Cyprinus carpio and Carassius auratus, and the model native fish Tinca tinca, were used in a pond experiment to test how increased intra- and inter-specific competition influenced trophic niches and somatic growth rates. This was complemented by samples collected from three natural fish communities where the model fishes were present. The isotopic niche, calculated using stable isotope data, represented the trophic niche. 3. The pond experiment used additive and substitutive treatments to quantify the trophic niche variation that resulted from intra- and inter-specific competitive interactions. Although the trophic niche sizes of the model species were not significantly altered by any competitive treatment, they all resulted in patterns of inter-specific niche divergence. Increased inter-specific competition caused the trophic niche of T. tinca to shift to a significantly higher trophic position, whereas intra-specific competition caused its position to shift towards elevated 13C. These patterns were independent of impacts on fish growth rates, which were only significantly altered when inter-specific competition was elevated. 4. In the natural fish communities, patterns of trophic niche partitioning between the model fishes was evident, with no niche sharing. Comparison of these results with those of the experiment revealed the most similar results between the two approaches were for the niche partitioning between sympatric T. tinca and C. carpio. 5. These results indicate that trophic niche divergence facilitates the integration of introduced species into food webs, but there are differences in how this manifests between introductions that increase inter- and intra-specific competition. In entirety, these results suggest that the initial ecological response to an introduction appears to be a trophic re-organisation of the food web that minimises the trophic interactions between competing species

Potential of histamine-degrading microorganisms and diamine oxidase (DAO) for the reduction of histamine accumulation along the cheese ripening process

Lentilactobacillus parabuchneri is the main bacteria responsible for the accumulation of histamine in cheese. The goal of this study was to assess the efficiency of potential histamine-degrading microbial strains or, alternatively, the action of the diamine oxidase (DAO) enzyme in the reduction of histamine accumulation along the ripening process in cheese. A total of 8 cheese variants of cow milk cheese were manufactured, all of them containing L. parabuchneri Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen 5987 (except for the negative control cheese variant) along with histamine–degrading strains (Lacticaseibacillus casei 4a and 18b; Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus Colección Española de Cultivos Tipo (CECT) 4005 and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus CECT 7207; two commercial yogurt starter cultures; or Debaryomyces hansenii), or DAO enzyme, tested in each cheese variant. Histamine was quantified along 100 days of cheese ripening. All the degrading measures tested significantly reduced the concentration of histamine. The highest degree of degradation was observed in the cheese variant containing D. hansenii, where the histamine content decreased up to 45.32 %. Cheese variants with L. casei, or L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus strains, also decreased in terms of histamine content by 43.05 % and 42.31 %, respectively. No significant physicochemical changes (weight, pH, water activity, color, or texture) were observed as a consequence of the addition of potential histamine-degrading adjunct cultures or DAO in cheeses. However, the addition of histamine-degrading microorganisms was associated with a particular, not unpleasant aroma. Altogether, these results suggest that the use of certain histamine-degrading microorganisms could be proposed as a suitable measure in order to decrease the amount of histamine accumulated in cheeses. © 2022 The Author

Analysis of Intact Glycosidic Aroma Precursors in Grapes by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Diode Array Detector

© 2021 The authors. This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by /4.0/ This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in Foods.Nowadays, the techniques for the analysis of glycosidic precursors in grapes involve changes in the glycoside structure or it is necessary the use of very expensive analytical techniques. In this study, we describe for the first time an approach to analyse intact glycosidic aroma precursors in grapes by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), a simple and cheap analytical technique that could be used in wineries. Briefly, the skin of Muscat of Alexandria grapes was extracted using a microwave and purified using solid-phase extraction combining Oasis MCX and LiChrolut EN cartridges. In total, 20 compounds were selected by HPLC-DAD at 195 nm and taking as a reference the spectrum of pheny

Multiscale entropy analysis of unattended oximetric recordings to assist in the screening of paediatric sleep apnoea at home

Producción CientíficaUntreated paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) can severely affect the development and quality of life of children. In-hospital polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for a definitive diagnosis though it is relatively unavailable and particularly intrusive. Nocturnal portable oximetry has emerged as a reliable technique for OSAS screening. Nevertheless, additional evidences are demanded. Our study is aimed at assessing the usefulness of multiscale entropy (MSE) to characterise oximetric recordings. We hypothesise that MSE could provide relevant information of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) dynamics in the detection of childhood OSAS. In order to achieve this goal, a dataset composed of unattended SpO2 recordings from 50 children showing clinical suspicion of OSAS was analysed. SpO2 was parameterised by means of MSE and conventional oximetric indices. An optimum feature subset composed of five MSE-derived features and four conventional clinical indices were obtained using automated bidirectional stepwise feature selection. Logistic regression (LR) was used for classification. Our optimum LR model reached 83.5% accuracy (84.5% sensitivity and 83.0% specificity). Our results suggest that MSE provides relevant information from oximetry that is complementary to conventional approaches. Therefore, MSE may be useful to improve the diagnostic ability of unattended oximetry as a simplified screening test for childhood OSAS.Sociedad Española de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica (SEPAR) project 153/2015Junta de Castilla y León (Consejería de Educación) y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), projects (RTC-2015-3446-1) y (TEC2014-53196-R)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) y FEDER, y el proyecto POCTEP 0378_AD_EEGWA_2_P de la Comisión Europea. L.National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant 1R01HL130984-01Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital, grant IJCI-2014-2266

Carotenoides en agroalimentación y salud

Los carotenoides son compuestos especiales; si bien es común referirse a ellos como pigmentos, lo cierto es que son compuestos de gran versatilidad e importancia en la naturaleza. Más específicamente, son de gran interés en agroalimentación y salud. Así, por ejemplo, son pigmentos naturales y por lo tanto tienen un importante papel en la elección de alimentos por parte de los consumidores. Asimismo, algunos de ellos son precursores de la vitamina A. Sin embargo, que cada vez exista más interés en los carotenoides en este contexto se debe en gran parte a muchos estudios de distinta naturaleza que indican que pueden proporcionar beneficios para la salud. Su interés en alimentación funcional es por lo tanto indudable. En este libro se refleja la experiencia en carotenoides de un gran número de profesionales de la región iberoamericana. En conjunto, se ofrece una visión general de la investigación sobre estos compuestos en agroalimentación y salud. Los autores son miembros de la red IBERCAROT (http://carotenoides.us.es), que tiene entre sus objetivos conformar una red estable y funcional de profesionales que aúnen esfuerzos en pos de identificar nuevas fuentes de carotenoides de interés nutricional, mejorar su producción y aumentar el valor de los productos que los contengan

Electron and photon energy calibration with the ATLAS detector using 2015-2016 LHC proton-proton collision data

This paper presents the electron and photon energy calibration obtained with the ATLAS detector using about 36 fb−1 of LHC proton-proton collision data recorded at √s=13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. The different calibration steps applied to the data and the optimization of the reconstruction of electron and photon energies are discussed. The absolute energy scale is set using a large sample of Z boson decays into electron-positron pairs. The systematic uncertainty in the energy scale calibration varies between 0.03% to 0.2% in most of the detector acceptance for electrons with transverse momentum close to 45 GeV . For electrons with transverse momentum of 10 GeV the typical uncertainty is 0.3% to 0.8% and it varies between 0.25% and 1% for photons with transverse momentum around 60 GeV . Validations of the energy calibration with J/ψ → e+e− decays and radiative Z boson decays are also presented.Fil: Hoya, Joaquín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Alconada Verzini, María Josefina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Dova, Maria Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Monticelli, Fernando Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Orellana, Gonzalo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Wahlberg, Hernan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Abed Abud, A.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Ahmad, A.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Alderweireldt, S.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Aleksa, M.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Bielski, R.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Bortfeldt, J.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Boyd, J.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Butti, P.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Buttinger, W.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Iengo, P.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Camincher, C.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Campana, S.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Ellis, N.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Elsing, M.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Farthouat, P.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Fassnacht, P.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Heinrich, L.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Morley, A. K.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Mornacchi, G.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Meng, L.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Meng, L.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Stewart, G. A.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; SuizaFil: Stockton, M. C.. Cern - European Organization For Nuclear Research. The Cern Council; Suiz

The macroecology of infectious diseases: a new perspective on global-scale drivers of pathogen distributions and impacts

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS. Identifying drivers of infectious disease patterns and impacts at the broadest scales of organisation is one of the most crucial challenges for modern science, yet answers to many fundamental questions remain elusive. These include what factors commonly facilitate transmission of pathogens to novel host species, what drives variation in immune investment among host species, and more generally what drives global patterns of parasite diversity and distribution? Here we consider how the perspectives and tools of macroecology, a field that investigates patterns and processes at broad spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, are expanding scientific understanding of global infectious disease ecology. In particular, emerging approaches are providing new insights about scaling properties across all living taxa, and new strategies for mapping pathogen biodiversity and infection risk. Ultimately, macroecology is establishing a framework to more accurately predict global patterns of infectious disease distribution and emergence