Pretreatment of urine samples with SDS improves direct identification of urinary tract pathogens with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry

[EN]We pretreated with SDS 71 urine samples with bacterial counts of >10(5) CFU/ml and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) identification scores of <2, in order to minimize failure rates. Identification improved in 46.5% of samples, remained unchanged in 49.3%, and worsened in 4.2%. The improvement was more evident for Gram-negative (54.3%) than for Gram-positive (32%) bacteria

Porcine Digestible Peptides (PDP) in Weanling Diets Regulates the Expression of Genes Involved in Gut Barrier Function, Immune Response and Nutrient Transport in Nursery Pigs

CRAG 10.3390/ani10122368This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of porcine digestible peptides (PDP), spray-dried plasma (SDP), or a combination of both, on growth performance and the expression of genes related to intestinal function of weaned pigs. A total of 180 piglets (trial 1) and 198 piglets (trial 2) were used to evaluate the partial substitution of soybean ingredients with 2% SDP or 2% PDP (trial 1), and with 3% SDP or the combination of 1% SDP and 2% PDP (SDP-PDP; trial 2) during the pre-starter period (0-14 days). The gene expression of 56 genes was quantified in a qPCR platform in jejunum and ileum samples obtained from piglets 14 d after weaning (trial 2). Piglets fed SDP, PDP and SDP-PDP had a higher body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (G:F) than the soybean control on day 14 (p < 0.05). In addition, the combination of SDP and PDP upregulated ten genes in jejunum samples (p < 0.05) related to intestinal function. More research is needed to confirm that gene expression upregulation by PDP in combination with SDP has an impact on intestinal function and to elucidate its underlying mechanisms

Modelling and simulation of a lava flow affecting a shore platform: a case study of Montaña de Aguarijo eruption, El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain)

Recent subaerial volcanism at El Hierro Island (Canary Islands, Spain) consists of monogenetic volcanic fields. This volcanism generated cinder cones, tephra air-fall deposits, and lava flows. The lava flows reach several kilometres in length extending through shore platforms and, sometimes, penetrating under the sea level. The volcanic landforms of El Hierro convert it into a natural laboratory for topographic and morphometric modelling and lava flow simulations. We perform the modelling and simulation of the Montaña de Aguarijo eruption, a cinder cone at the NE rift. The associated lava flow channelled through a V-shaped ravine until reaching a cliff, where formed cascades. The flow spread at the cliff base over a platform before reaching the sea modifying the coastline. Different maps were designed to show the results, including the geomorphologic reconstruction of the area affected by this eruption and the lava flow simulations obtained with the Q-LavHA plugin. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of Journal of Maps

World App: El Secreto de tus Ojos est ́a en los permisos Android

A medida que se extiende el uso de dispositivos móviles, la privacidad en las aplicaciones móviles adquiere cada vez más importancia. Este artículo investiga el nivel de control que tienen los usuarios sobre su privacidad cuando utilizan aplicaciones móviles. Para ello, se propone un análisis estático de las aplicaciones. Se eligió como caso de estudio la aplicación "World App", conocida por su posible impacto en la privacidad. Se descubrió que World App solicita un total de 23 permisos, incluidos 10 clasificados como "peligrosos" que podrían afectar significativamente a la privacidad y seguridad de los usuarios. Además, hay otros permisos especiales que los usuarios no pueden controlar. Se concluye que los usuarios no tienen el nivel deseado de control sobre su privacidad: Los permisos especiales están fuera de su control, y la granularidad del control de acceso basado en permisos que utiliza Android no permite el control detallado sobre los datos que los usuarios necesitan para proteger su privacidad de forma eficaz.Este trabajo se incluye en las actividades del proyecto estratégico de Ciberseguridad “App-PI (App Privacy Impact): Un ecosistema para la evaluación del impacto de apps para dispositivos móviles sobre la privacidad y seguridad de sus usuarios”, el cual se realiza al amparo de un convenio de colaboración entre la Universidad de Valladolid y la S.M.E. Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad de España M.P., S.A. para la promoción de proyectos estratégicos de Ciberseguridad en España, en el marco de los fondos del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia, financiados por la Unión Europea (\textit{Next Generation}), el proyecto del Gobierno de España que traza la hoja de ruta para la modernización de la economía española, la recuperación del crecimiento económico y la creación de empleo, para la reconstrucción económica sólida, inclusiva y resiliente tras la crisis de la COVID19, y para responder a los retos de la próxima década

World App: El Secreto de tus Ojos

A medida que se extiende el uso de dispositivos móviles, la privacidad en las aplicaciones móviles adquiere cada vez más importancia. Este artículo investiga el nivel de control que tienen los usuarios sobre su privacidad cuando utilizan aplicaciones móviles. Para ello, se propone un análisis estático de las aplicaciones. Se eligió como caso de estudio la aplicación "World App", conocida por su posible impacto en la privacidad. Se descubrió que World App solicita un total de 23 permisos, incluidos 10 clasificados como "peligrosos" que podrían afectar significativamente a la privacidad y seguridad de los usuarios. Además, hay otros permisos especiales que los usuarios no pueden controlar. Se concluye que los usuarios no tienen el nivel deseado de control sobre su privacidad: Los permisos especiales están fuera de su control, y la granularidad del control de acceso basado en permisos que utiliza Android no permite el control detallado sobre los datos que los usuarios necesitan para proteger su privacidad de forma eficaz.Este trabajo se incluye en las actividades del proyecto estratégico de Ciberseguridad “App-PI (App Privacy Impact): Un ecosistema para la evaluación del impacto de apps para dispositivos móviles sobre la privacidad y seguridad de sus usuarios”, el cual se realiza al amparo de un convenio de colaboración entre la Universidad de Valladolid y la S.M.E. Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad de España M.P., S.A. para la promoción de proyectos estratégicos de Ciberseguridad en España, en el marco de los fondos del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia, financiados por la Unión Europea (\textit{Next Generation}), el proyecto del Gobierno de España que traza la hoja de ruta para la modernización de la economía española, la recuperación del crecimiento económico y la creación de empleo, para la reconstrucción económica sólida, inclusiva y resiliente tras la crisis de la COVID19, y para responder a los retos de la próxima década

Mixed Conductive, Injectable, and Fluorescent Supramolecular Eutectogel Composites

Funding Information: This work was supported by Marie Sklodowska‐Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) under the grant agreement No 823989 “IONBIKE”. The financial support received from CONICET and ANPCyT (Argentina) is also gratefully acknowledged. M. C.‐G. thanks Emakiker Grant Program of POLYMAT. L. C. T. is grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT/MCTES) in Portugal for her research contract under Scientific Employment Stimulus (2020.01555.CEECIND), and Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry—LAQV, which is also financed by FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020). D. M. thanks “Ayuda RYC2021‐031668‐I financiada por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR”. The authors thank the technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF, EU). Funding Information: This work was supported by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) under the grant agreement No 823989 “IONBIKE”. The financial support received from CONICET and ANPCyT (Argentina) is also gratefully acknowledged. M. C.-G. thanks Emakiker Grant Program of POLYMAT. L. C. T. is grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT/MCTES) in Portugal for her research contract under Scientific Employment Stimulus (2020.01555.CEECIND), and Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry—LAQV, which is also financed by FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020). D. M. thanks “Ayuda RYC2021-031668-I financiada por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR”. The authors thank the technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF, EU). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.Eutectogels are an emerging family of soft ionic materials alternative to ionic liquid gels and organogels, offering fresh perspectives for designing functional dynamic platforms in water-free environments. Herein, the first example of mixed ionic and electronic conducting supramolecular eutectogel composites is reported. A fluorescent glutamic acid-derived low-molecular-weight gelator (LMWG) was found to self-assemble into nanofibrillar networks in deep eutectic solvents (DES)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT): chondroitin sulfate dispersions. These dynamic materials displayed excellent injectability and self-healing properties, high ionic conductivity (up to 10−2 S cm−1), good biocompatibility, and fluorescence imaging ability. This set of features turns the mixed conducting supramolecular eutectogels into promising adaptive materials for bioimaging and electrostimulation applications.publishersversionpublishe

A systematic approach for peptide characterization of B-cell receptor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells

A wide variety of immunoglobulins (Ig) is produced by the immune system thanks to different mechanisms (V(D)J recombination, somatic hypermutation, and antigen selection). The profiling of Ig sequences (at both DNA and peptide levels) are of great relevance to developing targeted vaccines or treatments for specific diseases or infections. Thus, genomics and proteomics techniques (such as Next- Generation Sequencing (NGS) and mass spectrometry (MS)) have notably increased the knowledge in Ig sequencing and serum Ig peptide profiling in a high-throughput manner. However, the peptide characterization of membrane-bound Ig (e.g., B-cell receptors, BCR) is still a challenge mainly due to the poor recovery of mentioned Ig. Herein, we have evaluated three different sample processing methods for peptide sequencing of BCR belonging to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B cells identifying up to 426 different peptide sequences (MS/MS data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD004466). Moreover, as a consequence of the results here obtained, recommended guidelines have been described for BCR-sequencing of B-CLL samples by MS approaches. For this purpose, an in-house algorithm has been designed and developed to compare the MS/MS results with those obtained by molecular biology in order to integrate both proteomics and genomics results and establish the steps to follow when sequencing membrane-bound Ig by MS/MS.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII) for the grants: FIS PI11/02114 and FIS PI114/01538. We also acknowledge Fondos FEDER (EU) and Junta Castilla León (grant BIO/SA07/15). This work has been also sponsored by Fundación Solórzano (FS/23-2015). The Proteomics Unit belongs to ProteoRed, PRB2-ISCIII, supported by grant PT13/0001, of the PE I+D+I 2013-2016, funded by ISCIII and FEDER. The authors would like to thank all the clinicians and technicians in the Cytometry and Cell Purification Services of the University of Salamanca, the Spanish National DNA Bank (Banco Nacional de DNA Carlos III, University of Salamanca) and the Genomic Unit of Cancer Research Centre (IBMCC, USAL-CSIC) for their support in the data collection for the preparation of this manuscript. P.D. is supported by a JCYL-EDU/346/2013 Ph.D. scholarship.Peer Reviewe

Molecular and cytogenetic characterization of expanded B-cell clones from multiclonal versus monoclonal B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders

Chronic antigen-stimulation has been recurrently involved in the earlier stages of monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders. The expansion of two or more B-cell clones has frequently been reported in individuals with these conditions; potentially, such coexisting clones have a greater probability of interaction with common immunological determinants. Here, we analyzed the B-cell receptor repertoire and molecular profile, as well as the phenotypic, cytogenetic and hematologic features, of 228 chronic lymphocytic leukemia-like and non-chronic lymphocytic leukemia-like clones comparing multiclonal (n=85 clones from 41 cases) versus monoclonal (n=143 clones) monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders. The B-cell receptor of B-cell clones from multiclonal cases showed a slightly higher degree of HCDR3 homology than B-cell clones from mono clonal cases, in association with unique hematologic (e.g. lower B-lymphocyte counts) and cytogenetic (e.g. lower frequency of cytogenetically altered clones) features usually related to earlier stages of the disease. Moreover, a subgroup of coexisting B-cell clones from individual multiclonal cases which were found to be phylogenetically related showed unique molecular and cytogenetic features: they more frequently shared IGHV3 gene usage, shorter HCDR3 sequences with a greater proportion of IGHV mutations and del(13q14.3), than other unrelated B-cell clones. These results would support the antigen-driven nature of such multiclonal B-cell expansions, with potential involvement of multiple antigens/epitopes