Investigation of Parietal Polysaccharides from Retama raetam Roots

This study characterizes the cell wall hemicellulose and pectins polymers of Retama raetam. This species develops a particularly important root system and is adapted to arid areas. The cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectins were extracted. The cellulose remains the major component of the wall (27% for young roots and 80% for  adult roots), hemicelluloses (14.3% for young roots and 3.6%  for adult roots) and pectins (17.3% for young roots and 4.1% for adult roots). The monosaccharidic composition of water soluble extracts determined by gas liquid chromatography (GLC) and completed by infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of hemicellulosic shows the presence of xylose as a major monosaccharide in the non-cellulose polysaccharides (47.8% for young roots and 59.5% for adult roots). These results indicate the presence of the homogalacturonans and rhamnogalacturonans in pectin. This study constitutes the preliminary data obtained in the biochemical analysis of the parietal compounds of the roots of a species which grows in an arid area in comparison with those of its aerial parts.Keywords: Retama raetam, Roots, Cell Wall, Investigation, Polysaccharides, Monosaccharidi

Agri-Food Wastes for Bioplastics: European Prospective on Possible Applications in Their Second Life for a Circular Economy

Agri-food wastes (such as brewer’s spent grain, olive pomace, residual pulp from fruit juice production, etc.) are produced annually in very high quantities posing a serious problem, both environmentally and economically. These wastes can be used as secondary starting materials to produce value-added goods within the principles of the circular economy. In this context, this review focuses on the use of agri-food wastes either to produce building blocks for bioplastics manufacturing or biofillers to be mixed with other bioplastics. The pros and cons of the literature analysis have been highlighted, together with the main aspects related to the production of bioplastics, their use and recycling. The high number of European Union (EU)-funded projects for the valorisation of agri-food waste with the best European practices for this industrial sector confirm a growing interest in safeguarding our planet from environmental pollution. However, problems such as the correct labelling and separation of bioplastics from fossil ones remain open and to be optimised, with the possibility of reuse before final composting and selective recovery of biomass

Childhood Cryptosporidiosis: A Case Report

Cryptosporidium has emerged as an important cause of diarrheal illness worldwide, especially amongst young children and patients with infectious or iatrogenic immune deficiencies. The authors describe a case of mild cryptosporidiosis in a well-nourished, immunocompetent, one-year-old child. Rapid clinical and parasitological improvement was observed after a 3-day course of nitazoxanide

A Dialogue between the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor and the Tumor Microenvironment

The hypoxia-inducible factor is the key protein responsible for the cellular adaptation to low oxygen tension. This transcription factor becomes activated as a result of a drop in the partial pressure of oxygen, to hypoxic levels below 5% oxygen, and targets a panel of genes involved in maintenance of oxygen homeostasis. Hypoxia is a common characteristic of the microenvironment of solid tumors and, through activation of the hypoxia-inducible factor, is at the center of the growth dynamics of tumor cells. Not only does the microenvironment impact on the hypoxia-inducible factor but this factor impacts on microenvironmental features, such as pH, nutrient availability, metabolism and the extracellular matrix. In this review we discuss the influence the tumor environment has on the hypoxia-inducible factor and outline the role of this factor as a modulator of the microenvironment and as a powerful actor in tumor remodeling. From a fundamental research point of view the hypoxia-inducible factor is at the center of a signaling pathway that must be deciphered to fully understand the dynamics of the tumor microenvironment. From a translational and pharmacological research point of view the hypoxia-inducible factor and its induced downstream gene products may provide information on patient prognosis and offer promising targets that open perspectives for novel “anti-microenvironment” directed therapies

A C-terminal cysteine residue is required for peptide-based inhibition of the NGF/TrkA interaction at nM concentrations:implications for peptide-based analgesics

Inhibition of the NGF/TrkA interaction presents an interesting alternative to the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and/or opioids for the control of inflammatory, chronic and neuropathic pain. Most prominent of the current approaches to this therapy is the antibody Tanezumab, which is a late-stage development humanized monoclonal antibody that targets NGF. We sought to determine whether peptides might similarly inhibit the NGF/TrkA interaction and so serve as future therapeutic leads. Starting from two peptides that inhibit the NGF/TrkA interaction, we sought to eliminate a cysteine residue close to the C-terminal of both sequences, by an approach of mutagenic analysis and saturation mutagenesis of mutable residues. Elimination of cysteine from a therapeutic lead is desirable to circumvent manufacturing difficulties resulting from oxidation. Our analyses determined that the cysteine residue is not required for NGF binding, but is essential for inhibition of the NGF/TrkA interaction at pharmacologically relevant peptide concentrations. We conclude that a cysteine residue is required within potential peptide-based therapeutic leads and hypothesise that these peptides likely act as dimers, mirroring the dimeric structure of the TrkA receptor

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino