New high-performance liquid chromatography-dad method for analytical determination of arbutin and hydroquinone in rat plasma

Natural substances present in herbal preparations should be carefully used because they can give toxic or therapeutic effects despite of their amount or the way of administration. The safety of products of vegetable origin must be assessed before commercialisation by monitoring the active ingredients and their metabolites. This study was therefore designed to identify and quantify arbutin and its metabolite hydroquinone, naturally present in Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng plant in rat plasma, after an acute and subacute administration of aqueous arbutin solution in Wistar rats. For this purpose a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection was developed to assess the pharmacokinetic of arbutin and hydroquinone in plasma of female rats treated with aqueous arbutin solutions. The detection (arbutin: 0.0617 µg/ml and hydroquinone 0.0120 µg/ml) and quantification (arbutin: 0.2060 µg/ml and hydroquinone: 0.0400 µg/ml) limits were determined. At the arbutin concentration level of 10.7 µg/ml repeatability was 13.33% and its recovery 93.4±6.93%, while at the hydroquinone concentration level of 10.6 µg/ml repeatability was 11.66% and its recovery 92.9±7.75%. Furthermore the method was fully validated and the obtained data indicate that the new method provides good performances

Enabling countries to apply behavioural science in using global survey data to inform their Covid-19 policies

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital importance and impact of human behaviour on viral transmission. During 2020, large amounts of global survey data were collected and made freely available to help the response. Many teams responding to the pandemic lack capacity to identify and interpret behavioural data. A collaboration of the World Health Organization’s Behavioural Insights team and UCL’s Centre for Behaviour Change designed and piloted two templates to enable survey data use during the first months of the pandemic. The first template documents key behaviours, thoughts and emotions related to the pandemic, along with social interactions and population adherence to behavioural guidelines. The second template enables countries to formulate questions or issues that they would like behavioural data to address. This collaborative process applying behavioural science theory produced structured templates to enable organisation and interpretation of survey data to inform policy and practice in different country contexts

Thermal Infrared Observations of Asteroid (99942) Apophis with Herschel

The near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid. We obtained far-infrared observations of this asteroid with the Herschel Space Observatory's PACS instrument at 70, 100, and 160 micron. These were taken at two epochs in January and March 2013 during a close Earth encounter. These first thermal measurements of Apophis were taken at similar phase angles before and after opposition. We performed a detailed thermophysical model analysis by using the spin and shape model recently derived from applying a 2-period Fourier series method to a large sample of well-calibrated photometric observations. We find that the tumbling asteroid Apophis has an elongated shape with a mean diameter of 375$^{+14}_{-10}$ m (of an equal volume sphere) and a geometric V-band albedo of 0.30$^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$. We find a thermal inertia in the range 250-800 Jm$^{-2}$s$^{-0.5}$K$^{-1}$ (best solution at 600 Jm$^{-2}$s$^{-0.5}$K$^{-1}$), which can be explained by a mixture of low conductivity fine regolith with larger rocks and boulders of high thermal inertia on the surface. The thermal inertia, and other similarities with (25143) Itokawa indicate that Apophis might also have a rubble-pile structure. If we combine the new size value with the assumption of an Itokawa-like density and porosity we estimate a mass between 4.4 and 6.2 10$^{10}$ kg which is more than 2-3 times larger than previous estimates. We expect that the newly derived properties will influence impact scenario studies and influence the long-term orbit predictions of Apophis.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 21 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

STAT3, a hub protein of cellular signaling pathways, is triggered by β-hexaclorocyclohexane

Background: Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are widely distributed in the environment and their toxicity is mostly associated with the molecular mechanisms of endocrine disruption. Among OCPs, particular attention was focused on the effects of β-hexaclorocyclohexane (β-HCH), a widely common pollutant. A detailed epidemiological study carried out on exposed population in the “Valle del Sacco” found correlations between the incidence of a wide range of diseases and the occurrence of β-HCH contamination. Taking into account the pleiotropic role of the protein signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), its function as a hub protein in cellular signaling pathways triggered by β-HCH was investigated in different cell lines corresponding to tissues that are especially vulnerable to damage by environmental pollutants. Materials and Methods: Human prostate cancer (LNCaP), human breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB 468), and human hepatoma (HepG2) cell lines were treated with 10 µM β-HCH in the presence or absence of specific inhibitors for different receptors. All samples were subjected to analysis by immunoblotting and RT-qPCR. Results and Conclusions: The preliminary results allow us to hypothesize the involvement of STAT3, through both its canonical and non-canonical pathways, in response to β-HCH. Moreover, we ascertained the role of STAT3 as a master regulator of energy metabolism via the altered expression and localization of HIF-1α and PKM2, respectively, resulting in a Warburg-like effect

Efeito de espécies vegetais em bordadura em cebola sobre a densidade populacional de tripes e sirfídeos predadores.

Analisou-se a relação entre o efeito do plantio de diferentes espécies vegetais, em bordadura, na cultura da cebola, Allium cepa L, na incidência de Thrips tabaci Lind. e sirfídeos predadores, Toxomerus spp. O experimento foi conduzido na Epagri, EE de Ituporanga, de agosto a dezembro de 1998. Os tratamentos foram cebola em monocultivo; cebola + trigo mourisco (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench); cebola + nabo forrageiro (Raphanus sativus L. var. oleiferus Metzg.); cebola + cenoura (Daucus carota L., cv. Nantes e cv. Brasília); cebola + milho (Zea mays L.); cebola + rúcula (Eruca sativa L.) + vegetação espontânea. O plantio de diferentes espécies vegetais em bordadura não provocou diferenças significativas na incidência de tripes e sirfídeos predadores. A produtividade comercial de bulbos de cebola foi similar em sistema de monocultivo e diversificado, sugerindo ser possível adotar tais sistemas sem perdas em rendimento

Oligomers, organosulfates, and nitrooxy organosulfates in rainwater identified by ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization FT-ICR mass spectrometry

Wet deposition is an important removal mechanism for atmospheric organic matter, and a potentially important input for receiving ecosystems, yet less than 50% of rainwater organic matter is considered chemically characterized. Precipitation samples collected in New Jersey, USA, were analyzed by negative ion ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Elemental compositions of 552 unique molecular species were determined in the mass range 50–500 Da in the rainwater. Four main groups of organic compounds were identified: compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (CHO) only, sulfur (S) containing CHOS compounds, nitrogen (N) containing CHON compounds, and S- and N- containing CHONS compounds. Organic acids commonly identified in precipitation were detected in the rainwater. Within the four main groups of compounds detected in the rainwater, oligomers, organosulfates, and nitrooxy-organosulfates were assigned based on elemental formula comparisons. The majority of the compounds identified are products of atmospheric reactions and are known contributors to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed from gas phase, aerosol phase, and in-cloud reactions in the atmosphere. It is suggested that the large uncharacterized component of SOA is the main contributor to the large uncharacterized component of rainwater organic matter

A changepoint analysis of spatio-temporal point processes

As regards author Linda Altieri, the research work underlying this paper was partially funded by a FIRB 2012 grant (project no. RBFR12URQJ; title: Statistical modeling of environmental phenomena: pollution, meteorology, health and their interactions) for research projects by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.This work introduces a Bayesian approach to detecting multiple unknown changepoints over time in the inhomogeneous intensity of a spatio-temporal point process with spatial and temporal dependence within segments. We propose a new method for detecting changes by fitting a spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox process model using the computational efficiency and flexibility of integrated nested Laplace approximation, and by studying the posterior distribution of the potential changepoint positions. In this paper, the context of the problem and the research questions are introduced, then the methodology is presented and discussed in detail. A simulation study assesses the validity and properties of the proposed methods. Lastly, questions are addressed concerning potential unknown changepoints in the intensity of radioactive particles found on Sandside beach, Dounreay, Scotland.PostprintPeer reviewe