Phenolic Acids, Phenolic Aldehydes and Furanic Derivatives in Oak Chips: American vs. French Oaks

Phenolic acids (gallic, vanillic, syringic and ellagic acids), phenolic aldehydes (vanillin, syringaldehyde,coniferaldehyde and sinapaldehyde) and furanic derivatives (furfural, 5-methylfurfural and5-hydroxymethylfurfural) were quantified in commercial American and French oak chips. Chips withdifferent sizes and toast degrees were used. Compounds were extracted directly from the wood samples inorder to determine possible differences among woods as well as toast degree. Likewise, the compounds wereextracted from a synthetic wine solution to which the chip woods had been added. The results show thatFrench wood chips are generally richer than the American ones. The total amount of phenolic compoundsincreases with toasting level, with the non-toasted chips being the poorest ones. The degree of extractionfrom the synthetic wine solution seems to be related to the shape of the chips, rather than to the wood typeor toast degree

The Impact of the Malolactic Fermentation in the Volatile Composition of Trincadeira Wine Variety

Use of commercial starters for malolactic fermentation (MLF) is a common practice, and outcomes of this procedure are very relevant for wine producers because aroma attributes might change according to the strain used. MLF was carried out in the Trincadeira wine variety in three batches: spontaneously and with inoculation of two different commercial starters. Wine extracts before and after MLF were obtained through liquid–liquid extraction. Gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry analysis allowed the detection of 21 compounds, some of them tentatively identified through electron impact spectra comparison with a database, through interpretation of multistage mass spectrometry and chemical ionization mass spectrometry spectra and confirmation by comprehensive multidimensional gas chromatography/ time of flight-mass spectrometry (GC ¥ GC/ToF-MS). After MLF, an increase in ethyl lactate, g-butyrolactone and diethyl succinate and a drop in isoamyl acetate, ethyl octanoate, ethyl decanoate, 2,3-dimethyl-hexan-3-ol, propanol, isobutanol and 2,3-butanediol was observed. The concentrations of the 10 compounds are statistically different in wines before and after MLF, and wines after MLF show significant differences for the nine compounds

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a rare pulmonary toxicity of sirolimus.

Transpl Int. 2007 Mar;20(3):291-6. Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a rare pulmonary toxicity of sirolimus. Pedroso SL, Martins LS, Sousa S, Reis A, Dias L, Henriques AC, Sarmento AM, Cabrita A. Nephrology Department, Hospital Geral de Santo António, Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract The aim of our paper is to describe an unusual pulmonary toxicity of sirolimus (SRL) in a kidney transplant recipient. We present a 34-year-old woman with a second renal transplantation, complicated with steroid-resistant acute rejection and chronic allograft dysfunction. Two years after initiating SRL, she presented complaints of progressive dyspnoea, nonproductive cough, chest pain and low-grade fever of 1 month duration. She had chronic allograft nephropathy and slight elevation of lactic dehydrogenase levels. After exclusion of common reasons of this condition, a computed tomography (CT) of the thorax and bronchoscopy was performed, revealing ground-glass opacification with polygonal shapes on CT and an opaque appearance with numerous macrophages on bronchoalveolar lavage. The alveolar macrophages stained positive by Periodic acid-Schiff. Diagnosis of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) was made and drug-induced toxicity was suspected. SRL was withdrawn with marked improvement in the patients' clinical and radiological status. PAP resolved within 3 months without further therapy. PAP is a very rare complication of SRL therapy with only a few cases described. Withdrawal of SRL with conversion to another immunosuppressant seems to be an appropriate procedure in this condition. PMID: 17291222 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLIN

Functional and morphological assessment of a standardized rat sciatic nerve crush injury with a non-serrated clamp

Peripheral nerve researchers frequently use the rat sciatic nerve crush as a model for axonotmesis.Unfortunately, studies from various research groups report results from different crush techniquesand by using a variety of evaluation tools, making comparisons between studies difficult. The pur-pose of this investigation was to determine the sequence of functional and morphologic changes af-ter an acute sciatic nerve crush injury with a non-serrated clamp, giving a final standardized pres-sure of p9 MPa. Functional recovery was evaluated using the sciatic functional index (SFI), theextensor postural thrust (EPT) and the withdrawal reflex latency (WRL), before injury, and thenat weekly intervals until week 8 postoperatively. The rats were also evaluated preoperatively andat weeks 2, 4, and 8 by ankle kinematics, toe out angle (TOA), and gait-stance duration. In addi-tion, the motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) and the gastrocnemius-soleus weight parameterswere measured just before euthanasia. Finally, structural, ultrastructural and histomorphometricanalyses were carried out on regenerated nerve fibers. At 8 weeks after the crush injury, a full func-tional recovery was predicted by SFI, EPT, TOA, and gait-stance duration, while all the other pa-rameters were still recovering their original values. On the other hand, only two of the histomor-phometric parameters of regenerated nerve fibers, namely myelin thickness/axon diameter ratio andfiber/axon diameter ratio, returned to normal values while all other parameters were significantlydifferent from normal values. The employment of traditional methods of functional evaluation inconjunction with the modern techniques of computerized analysis of gait and histomorphometricanalysis should thus be recommended for an overall assessment of recovery in the rat sciatic nervecrush model

Molecular determinants of ligand specificity in family 11 carbohydrate binding modules - An NMR, X-ray crystallography and computational chemistry approach

12 pags, 6 figs, 1 tabThe direct conversion of plant cell wall polysaccharides into soluble sugars is one of the most important reactions on earth, and is performed by certain microorganisms such as Clostridium thermocellum (Ct). These organisms produce extracellular multi-subunit complexes (i.e. cellulosomes) comprising a consortium of enzymes, which contain noncatalytic carbohydrate-binding modules (CBM) that increase the activity of the catalytic module. In the present study, we describe a combined approach by X-ray crystallography, NMR and computational chemistry that aimed to gain further insight into the binding mode of different carbohydrates (cellobiose, cellotetraose and cellohexaose) to the binding pocket of the family 11 CBM. The crystal structure of C. thermocellum CBM11 has been resolved to 1.98 Å in the apo form. Since the structure with a bound substrate could not be obtained, computational studies with cellobiose, cellotetraose and cellohexaose were carried out to determine the molecular recognition of glucose polymers by CtCBM11. These studies revealed a specificity area at the CtCBM11 binding cleft, which is lined with several aspartate residues. In addition, a cluster of aromatic residues was found to be important for guiding and packing of the polysaccharide. The binding cleft of CtCBM11 interacts more strongly with the central glucose units of cellotetraose and cellohexaose, mainly through interactions with the sugar units at positions 2 and 6. This model of binding is supported by saturation transfer difference NMR experiments and linebroadening NMR studies. © 2008 The Authors.The authors would like to thank the research network REQUIMTE (Project Reqmol), as well as the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT-MCTES), for financial support through projectPTDC⁄QUI⁄68286⁄2006 and scholarships SFRH⁄BPD⁄27237⁄2006 and SFRH⁄BD⁄31359⁄200

Haematological and biochemical parameters in Churra-da-Terra-Quente ewes from the northeast of Portugal

Hematological and biochemical parameters, including plasma electrolytes and thyroid hormones, were determined in 73 clinically healthy Churra-da-Terra-Quente ewes, a typical breed from the northeast of Portugal. The hemogram values were: erythrocytes 9.8±1.51012/L; haemoglobin 118.1±19.1g/L; haematocrit 40.8±5.9%; leukocytes 5.7±1.8109/L; and platelets 544.3±177.2109/L. The thrombin time was 17.3±1.7 seconds. The values of biochemical parameters were: total protein 76.4±6.1g/L; glucose 2.87±0.60mmol/L; total cholesterol 1.65±0.33mmol/L; aspartate aminotransferase 155.9±49.2U/L; alanine aminotransferase 23.2±9.6U/L; γ-glutamyl transferase 48.0±18.7U/L; total alkaline phosphatase 121.6±76.1U/L; glutamate dehydrogenase 6.4±3.7U/L; urea 7.32±2.22mmol/L; creatinine 123.0±54.1μmol/L; total calcium 2.53±0.25mmol/L; phosphorus 2.10±0.46mmol/L; magnesium 1.01±0.09mmol/L; sodium 152.04±3.65mmol/L; potassium 4.7±0.4mmol/L; ionized calcium 1.32±0.07mmol/L; total thyroxine 111.75±42.29nmol/L; total triiodothyronine 1.01±0.28nmol/L; free T4 11.93±1.78pmol/L; free T3 4.22±1.33pmol/L; and thyroid-stimulating hormone 0.18±0.19μIU/mL. Although differences among the Churra-da-Terra-Quente breed and other breeds may occur, the hematological and biochemical parameters, plasma electrolytes, and thyroid hormones, for this indigenous breed, were generally situated within the reference intervals previously reported for sheep

Search for gravitational-wave transients associated with magnetar bursts in advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo data from the third observing run

Gravitational waves are expected to be produced from neutron star oscillations associated with magnetar giant f lares and short bursts. We present the results of a search for short-duration (milliseconds to seconds) and longduration (∼100 s) transient gravitational waves from 13 magnetar short bursts observed during Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, and KAGRA’s third observation run. These 13 bursts come from two magnetars, SGR1935 +2154 and SwiftJ1818.0−1607. We also include three other electromagnetic burst events detected by FermiGBM which were identified as likely coming from one or more magnetars, but they have no association with a known magnetar. No magnetar giant flares were detected during the analysis period. We find no evidence of gravitational waves associated with any of these 16 bursts. We place upper limits on the rms of the integrated incident gravitational-wave strain that reach 3.6 × 10−²³ Hz at 100 Hz for the short-duration search and 1.1 ×10−²² Hz at 450 Hz for the long-duration search. For a ringdown signal at 1590 Hz targeted by the short-duration search the limit is set to 2.3 × 10−²² Hz. Using the estimated distance to each magnetar, we derive upper limits upper limits on the emitted gravitational-wave energy of 1.5 × 1044 erg (1.0 × 1044 erg) for SGR 1935+2154 and 9.4 × 10^43 erg (1.3 × 1044 erg) for Swift J1818.0−1607, for the short-duration (long-duration) search. Assuming isotropic emission of electromagnetic radiation of the burst fluences, we constrain the ratio of gravitational-wave energy to electromagnetic energy for bursts from SGR 1935+2154 with the available fluence information. The lowest of these ratios is 4.5 × 103

A joint Fermi-GBM and Swift-BAT analysis of gravitational-wave candidates from the third gravitational-wave observing run

We present Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (Fermi-GBM) and Swift Burst Alert Telescope (Swift-BAT) searches for gamma-ray/X-ray counterparts to gravitational-wave (GW) candidate events identified during the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. Using Fermi-GBM onboard triggers and subthreshold gamma-ray burst (GRB) candidates found in the Fermi-GBM ground analyses, the Targeted Search and the Untargeted Search, we investigate whether there are any coincident GRBs associated with the GWs. We also search the Swift-BAT rate data around the GW times to determine whether a GRB counterpart is present. No counterparts are found. Using both the Fermi-GBM Targeted Search and the Swift-BAT search, we calculate flux upper limits and present joint upper limits on the gamma-ray luminosity of each GW. Given these limits, we constrain theoretical models for the emission of gamma rays from binary black hole mergers