A role for microbial selection in frescoes' deterioration in Tomba degli Scudi in Tarquinia, Italy

Mural paintings in the hypogeal environment of the Tomba degli Scudi in Tarquinia, Italy, show a quite dramatic condition: the plaster mortar lost his cohesion and a white layer coating is spread over almost all the wall surfaces. The aim of this research is to verify if the activity of microorganisms could be one of the main causes of deterioration and if the adopted countermeasures (conventional biocide treatments) are sufficient to stop it. A biocide treatment of the whole environment has been carried out before the conservative intervention and the tomb has been closed for one month. When the tomb was opened again, we sampled the microorganisms present on the frescoes and we identified four Bacillus species and one mould survived to the biocide treatment. These organisms are able to produce spores, a highly resistant biological form, which has permitted the survival despite the biocide treatment. We show that these Bacillus strains are able to produce calcium carbonate and could be responsible for the white deposition that was damaging and covering the entire surface of the frescoes. Our results confirm that the sanitation intervention is non always resolutive and could even be deleterious in selecting harmful microbial communities

Calcite moonmilk of microbial origin in the Etruscan Tomba degli Scudi in Tarquinia, Italy

A white deposit covering the walls in the Stanza degli Scudi of the Tomba degli Scudi, Tarquinia, Italy, has been investigated. In this chamber, which is still preserved from any kind of intervention such as cleaning and sanitization, ancient Etruscans painted shields to celebrate the military power of the Velcha family. Scanning electron microscopy analysis has revealed the presence of characteristic nanostructures corresponding to a calcite secondary mineral deposit called moonmilk. Analysis of the microbial community identified Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria as the most common phyla in strong association with the moonmilk needle fibre calcite and nanofibers of calcium carbonate. Employing classical microbiological analysis, we isolated from moonmilk a Streptomyces strain able to deposit gypsum and calcium carbonate on plates, supporting the hypothesis of an essential contribution of microorganisms to the formation of moonmilk

Oral contraceptives and colorectal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

n/

Bigging up the railway : Experiencing the past to understand the present

Treball desenvolupat en el marc del programa "European Project Semester".This report is the methodology of how this EPS group of students came together to create an app for the railway museum of Catalonia. We have been asked to do this to allow their visitors to have a better experience of the museum. The app will not only serve as a comprehensive resource for visitors, but it will also offer practical functionalities. By incorporating these features, we aim to make the museum more accessible and engaging, improving the overall visitor experience. Extensive research has been conducted on existing apps and interactive games to inform the app's layout and interactive elements. In summary, the Railway Museum Project focused on developing a user-friendly app that enhances the Vilanova Railway Station's visitor experience. By providing comprehensive information, interactive features, and practical functionalities, we aimed to make the museum more accessible and engaging for a wider audience and believe this report shows that.Incomin

Selection of very small differences in bacterial evolution

As the Science of Biology is constantly undergoing change due to new discoveries and advanced techniques it is essential that a systematic study of the environmental causes of natural selection on microorganisms be conducted. Very small phenotypic differences among individuals within bacterial populations arise as a result of spontaneous genetic variation, but the evolutionary importance of these small changes is frequently considered to be non-significant. Recent in vitro experiments indicate that efficient selection of these very small differences may take place in environmental compartments where a particular intensity of the selective agent is exerted. Model studies based on competition between bacterial populations only differing in one or two amino acid changes of a detoxifying antibiotic enzyme (e. g. β-lactamase) have shown that at a narrow range of antibiotic concentrations the variant population is strongly selected over the original type, despite the extremely low phenotypic differences in antibiotic susceptibility. These selective concentrations are expected to occur in precise environmental compartments (selective compartments). Due to the high frequency of structured habitats in natural environments, the intensity of selective agents is commonly exerted along certain gradients. Each one of the points forming these gradients (or intersection among gradients) may have a particular selective ability for a specific genetic variant. Considering the environment as a composition of an extremely high number of specific selective compartments may help to understand the existence of high levels of genetic variability in natural bacterial populations. This may be one of the clues towards the unraveling of bacterial evolution

Lung cancer mortality in European women: recent trends and perspectives

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer mortality in men has been declining since the late 1980s in most European countries. In women, although rates are still appreciably lower than those for men, steady upward trends have been observed in most countries. To quantify the current and future lung cancer epidemic in European women, trends in lung cancer mortality in women over the last four decades were analyzed, with specific focus on the young. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Age-standardized (world standard) lung cancer mortality rates per 100 000 women--at all ages, and truncated 35-64 and 20-44 years--were derived from the WHO for the European Union (EU) as a whole and for 33 separate European countries. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to identify points where a significant change in trends occurred. RESULTS: In the EU overall, female lung cancer mortality rates rose by 23.8% between 1980-1981 and the early 1990-1991 (from 7.8 to 9.6/100 000), and by 16.1% thereafter, to reach the value of 11.2/100 000 in 2000-2001. Increases were smaller in the last decade in several countries. Only in England and Wales, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine did female lung cancer mortality show a decrease over the last decade. In several European countries, a decline in lung cancer mortality in young women (20-44 years) was observed over the last decade. CONCLUSIONS: Although female lung cancer mortality is still increasing in most European countries, the more favorable trends in young women over recent calendar years suggest that if effective interventions to control tobacco smoking in women are implemented, the lung cancer epidemic in European women will not reach the levels observed in the USA. [Authors]]]> Lung Neoplasms; Mortality; Female eng https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_1D2BD2A3B24C.P001/REF.pdf http://nbn-resolving.org/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_1D2BD2A3B24C2 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_1D2BD2A3B24C2 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Copying allowed only for non-profit organizations https://serval.unil.ch/disclaimer application/pdf oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_1D2BE11940C7 2022-05-07T01:11:58Z urnserval <oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd"> https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_1D2BE11940C7 Caffeine intake and CYP1A2 variants associated with high caffeine intake protect non-smokers from hypertension. info:doi:10.1093/hmg/dds137 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1093/hmg/dds137 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/22492992 Guessous, I. Dobrinas, M. Kutalik, Z. Pruijm, M. Ehret, G. Maillard, M. Bergmann, S. Beckmann, J.S. Cusi, D. Rizzi, F. Cappuccio, F. Cornuz, J. Paccaud, F. Mooser, V. Gaspoz, J.M. Waeber, G. Burnier, M. Vollenweider, P. Eap, C.B. Bochud, M. info:eu-repo/semantics/article article 2012 Human Molecular Genetics, vol. 21, no. 14, pp. 3283-3292 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1460-2083 urn:issn:0964-6906 <![CDATA[The 15q24.1 locus, including CYP1A2, is associated with blood pressure (BP). The CYP1A2 rs762551 C allele is associated with lower CYP1A2 enzyme activity. CYP1A2 metabolizes caffeine and is induced by smoking. The association of caffeine consumption with hypertension remains controversial. We explored the effects of CYP1A2 variants and CYP1A2 enzyme activity on BP, focusing on caffeine as the potential mediator of CYP1A2 effects. Four observational (n = 16 719) and one quasi-experimental studies (n = 106) including European adults were conducted. Outcome measures were BP, caffeine intake, CYP1A2 activity and polymorphisms rs762551, rs1133323 and rs1378942. CYP1A2 variants were associated with hypertension in non-smokers, but not in smokers (CYP1A2-smoking interaction P = 0.01). Odds ratios (95% CIs) for hypertension for rs762551 CC, CA and AA genotypes were 1 (reference), 0.78 (0.59-1.02) and 0.66 (0.50-0.86), respectively, P = 0.004. Results were similar for the other variants. Higher CYP1A2 activity was linearly associated with lower BP after quitting smoking (P = 0.049 and P = 0.02 for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively), but not while smoking. In non-smokers, the CYP1A2 variants were associated with higher reported caffeine intake, which in turn was associated with lower odds of hypertension and lower BP (P = 0.01). In Mendelian randomization analyses using rs1133323 as instrument, each cup of caffeinated beverage was negatively associated with systolic BP [-9.57 (-16.22, -2.91) mmHg]. The associations of CYP1A2 variants with BP were modified by reported caffeine intake. These observational and quasi-experimental results strongly support a causal role of CYP1A2 in BP control via caffeine intake

Differential Functional Constraints Cause Strain-Level Endemism in Polynucleobacter Populations.

The adaptation of bacterial lineages to local environmental conditions creates the potential for broader genotypic diversity within a species, which can enable a species to dominate across ecological gradients because of niche flexibility. The genus Polynucleobacter maintains both free-living and symbiotic ecotypes and maintains an apparently ubiquitous distribution in freshwater ecosystems. Subspecies-level resolution supplemented with metagenome-derived genotype analysis revealed that differential functional constraints, not geographic distance, produce and maintain strain-level genetic conservation in Polynucleobacter populations across three geographically proximal riverine environments. Genes associated with cofactor biosynthesis and one-carbon metabolism showed habitat specificity, and protein-coding genes of unknown function and membrane transport proteins were under positive selection across each habitat. Characterized by different median ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous evolutionary changes (dN/dS ratios) and a limited but statistically significant negative correlation between the dN/dS ratio and codon usage bias between habitats, the free-living and core genotypes were observed to be evolving under strong purifying selection pressure. Highlighting the potential role of genetic adaptation to the local environment, the two-component system protein-coding genes were highly stable (dN/dS ratio, &lt; 0.03). These results suggest that despite the impact of the habitat on genetic diversity, and hence niche partition, strong environmental selection pressure maintains a conserved core genome for Polynucleobacter populations. IMPORTANCE Understanding the biological factors influencing habitat-wide genetic endemism is important for explaining observed biogeographic patterns. Polynucleobacter is a genus of bacteria that seems to have found a way to colonize myriad freshwater ecosystems and by doing so has become one of the most abundant bacteria in these environments. We sequenced metagenomes from locations across the Chicago River system and assembled Polynucleobacter genomes from different sites and compared how the nucleotide composition, gene codon usage, and the ratio of synonymous (codes for the same amino acid) to nonsynonymous (codes for a different amino acid) mutations varied across these population genomes at each site. The environmental pressures at each site drove purifying selection for functional traits that maintained a streamlined core genome across the Chicago River Polynucleobacter population while allowing for site-specific genomic adaptation. These adaptations enable Polynucleobacter to become dominant across different riverine environmental gradients

Mapeamento da geodiversidade da Bacia hidrográfica do rio Palatino, Petrópolis – RJ: caracterização do meio físico aplicada à susceptibilidade a movimentos de massa e inundações

Os desastres relacionados a processos naturais são recorrentes no município de Petrópolis no estado do Rio de Janeiro. Em 15 de fevereiro de 2022, o município sofreu a maior catástrofe de sua história, contabilizando a perda de 238 vidas, além de perdas materiais. A Bacia Hidrográfica do rio Palatino foi extremamente afetada pelas chuvas do evento, principalmente o Morro da Oficina. A existência de Núcleos Comunitários de Defesa Civil (NUDECs), que atuam como voluntários na prevenção de desastres naturais, vem colaborando no preparo da população, porém, a abordagem geoeducativa tem potencial para gerar a percepção de risco através do conhecimento das particularidades da geodiversidade local. A geodiversidade corresponde à diversidade do meio abiótico, que em conjunto com a biodiversidade — diversidade do meio biótico, compõe a diversidade natural. A biodiversidade é um conceito amplamente difundido, diferente da geodiversidade, cujo conceito não é tão popularizado, apesar do termo ter sido destacado desde a década de 90. Desde então, a evolução do conceito, suas metodologias quantitativas e qualitativas e aplicações, vêm ocorrendo cada vez mais. Contribuindo com a propagação do conceito e o estabelecimento de metodologias para escalas de detalhe focadas em suscetibilidade a movimentos gravitacionais e inundações, essa monografia constituiu-se do levantamento da geodiversidade a partir da integração dos elementos do meio físico, representados pela geologia, relevo, hidrografia, declividade, hipsometria e os processos do meio físico, o qual possibilitou a diferenciação de domínios e unidades de geodiversidade. A diferenciação se deu pela interpretação das características integradas do meio físico, seus usos e potencialidades além dos riscos e recomendações. O produto final agrega dados censitários e uma carta síntese da história geológicageomorfológica da bacia. Sendo assim, possui grande potencial de propagação do conhecimento da geodiversidade em prol da percepção de risco da população integradora da bacia e de todo município

O papel da experimentação para professores de ciências

A importância da experimentação, para despertar o interesse do aluno ou ajudá-lo a desenvolver suas ideias, deve ser de conhecimento do professor. Mas será que estes sabem o real papel desta atividade? Qual a concepção apresentada pelos professores sobre este tema? Este trabalho expõe um estudo sobre a concepção de experimentação dos professores participantes de um Programa de Formação Continuada, buscando uma relação entre as concepções e sua formação. Por meio de questionários e registros, observou-se que as concepções dos professores em relação à experimentação baseiam-se em: comprovação, demonstração e prática da teoria. Nota-se ainda que muitos professores atuam fora de sua área de formação, sendo necessários cursos de formação para que professores possam garantir aos alunos atividades experimentais que possam envolvê-los em problematizações e discussões