Comparison of the TaqMan and LightCycler systems in pharmacogenetic testing: evaluation of the CYP2C9*2/*3 polymorphisms.

Background: Pharmacogenetic testing for drugmetabolizing enzymes is not yet widely used in clinical practice. Methods: In an attempt to facilitate the application of this procedure, we have compared two real-time PCRbased methods, the TaqMan_ and the LightCycler_ for the pharmacogenetic evaluation of CYP2C9*2/*3 polymorphisms. Results and Conclusion: Both procedures are suitable for pharmacogenetic studies. The TaqMan procedure was less expensive in terms of cost per sample, but the TaqMan apparatus is more expensive than the LightCycler apparatus

Bio-chemostratigraphy of the Barremian-Aptian shallow-water carbonates of the southern Apennines (Italy): pinpointing the OAE1a in a Tethyan carbonate platform

Low biostratigraphic resolution and lack of chronostratigraphic calibration hinder precise correlations between platform carbonates and coeval deep-water successions. These are the main obstacle when studying the record of Mesozoic oceanic anoxic events in carbonate platforms. In this paper carbon and strontium isotope stratigraphy areused to produce the first chronostratigraphic calibration of the Barremian-Aptian biostratigraphy of the Apenninic carbonate platform of southern Italy. According to this calibration, the segment of decreasing δ13C values, leading to the negative peak that is generally taken as the onset of the Selli event, starts a few metres above the last occurrence of Palorbitolina lenticularis and Voloshinoides murgensis. The following rise of δ13C values, corresponding to the interval of enhanced accumulation of organic matter in deep-water sections, ends just below the first acme of Salpingoporella dinarica, which roughly corresponds to the segment of peak δ13C values. The whole carbon isotope excursion associated with the oceanic anoxic event 1a is bracketed in the Apenninic carbonate platform between the last occurrence of Voloshinoides murgensis and the “Orbitolina level”, characterized by the association of Mesorbitolina parva and Mesorbitolina texana. Since these bioevents have been widely recognized beyond the Apenninic platform, the calibration presented in this paper can be used to pinpoint the interval corresponding to the Early Aptian oceanic anoxic event in other carbonate platforms of central and southern Tethys. This calibration will be particularly useful to interpret the record of the Selli event in carbonate platform sections for which a reliable carbon isotope stratigraphy is not available

Improving Multi-Objective Test Case Selection by Injecting Diversity in Genetic Algorithms

A way to reduce the cost of regression testing consists of selecting or prioritizing subsets of test cases from a test suite according to some criteria. Besides greedy algorithms, cost cognizant additional greedy algorithms, multi-objective optimization algorithms, and Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs), have also been proposed to tackle this problem. However, previous studies have shown that there is no clear winner between greedy and MOGAs, and that their combination does not necessarily produce better results. In this paper we show that the optimality of MOGAs can be significantly improved by diversifying the solutions (sub-sets of the test suite) generated during the search process. Specifically, we introduce a new MOGA, coined as DIV-GA (DIversity based Genetic Algorithm), based on the mechanisms of orthogonal design and orthogonal evolution that increase diversity by injecting new orthogonal individuals during the search process. Results of an empirical study conducted on eleven programs show that DIV-GA outperforms both greedy algorithms and the traditional MOGAs from the optimality point of view. Moreover, the solutions (sub-sets of the test suite) provided by DIV-GA are able to detect more faults than the other algorithms, while keeping the same test execution cost

Comparison of plane mirror vs retroreflector performance for laser-self-mixing displacement sensors

n/

Communication: Free energy of ligand-receptor systems forming multimeric complexes.

Ligand-receptor interactions are ubiquitous in biology and have become popular in materials in view of their applications to programmable self-assembly. Although complex functionalities often emerge from the simultaneous interaction of more than just two linker molecules, state of the art theoretical frameworks enable the calculation of the free energy only in systems featuring one-to-one ligand/receptor binding. In this Communication, we derive a general formula to calculate the free energy of systems featuring simultaneous direct interaction between an arbitrary number of linkers. To exemplify the potential and generality of our approach, we apply it to the systems recently introduced by Parolini et al. [ACS Nano 10, 2392 (2016)] and Halverson and Tkachenko [J. Chem. Phys. 144, 094903 (2016)], both featuring functionalized Brownian particles interacting via three-linker complexes.LDM and LP acknowledge support from the EPSRC Programme Grant CAPITALS number EP/J017566/1. LDM acknowledges support from the Oppenheimer Fund and Emmanuel College Cambridge. SB and BMM are supported by the Universit´e Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Cold gas in the Milky Way's nuclear wind

The centre of the Milky Way is the site of several high-energy processes that have strongly impacted the inner regions of our Galaxy. Activity from the super-massive black hole, Sgr A*, and/or stellar feedback from the inner molecular ring expel matter and energy from the disc in the form of a galactic wind. Multiphase gas has been observed within this outflow, from hot highly-ionized, to warm ionized and cool atomic gas. To date, however, there has been no evidence of the cold and dense molecular phase. Here we report the first detection of molecular gas outflowing from the centre of our Galaxy. This cold material is associated with atomic hydrogen clouds travelling in the nuclear wind. The morphology and the kinematics of the molecular gas, resolved on ~1 pc scale, indicate that these clouds are mixing with the warmer medium and are possibly being disrupted. The data also suggest that the mass of molecular gas driven out is not negligible and could impact the rate of star formation in the central regions. The presence of this cold, dense, high-velocity gas is puzzling, as neither Sgr A* at its current level of activity, nor star formation in the inner Galaxy seem viable sources for this material.Comment: Published in the August 19 issue of Nature. This is the authors' version before final edits. Published version is available at http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2595-

Comparison of cheeses from goats fed 7 forages based on a new health index.

This study proposed the General Health Index of Cheese (GHIC) as an indicator for the presence of health-promoting compounds in cheese and compared the antioxidant capacity and phenolic and fatty acid contents of cheeses from goats consuming 7 forage species. Ninety-one homogeneous Red Syrian goats were randomly assigned to 1 of 7 feeding treatments (Festuca arundinacea, Hordeum vulgare, Triticosecale, Pisum sativum, Trifolium alexandrinum, Vicia sativa, and Vicia faba minor). The housed goat groups received the scheduled forage ad libitum. Forage species affected the antioxidant capacity, the phenolic and fatty acid contents, the Health Promoting Index, and the GHIC. Trifolium alexandrinum, Triticosecale, and Hordeum vulgare showed a clear advantage in terms of beneficial fatty acids content in goat cheese. Cheese from the Triticosecale group also showed a high antioxidant capacity value even if its polyphenol content was intermediate compared with others. Trifolium alexandrinum and Triticosecale had the highest value of the new index GHIC. This comparison suggests that there are important differences in fatty acid profile and polyphenol content among cheeses from goats fed grasses and legumes commonly used in the Mediterranean area. In this first approach, GHIC index, which combines the positive components found in cheese, seems to be a useful tool to provide an indication concerning the general health value of the product

Neural basis of anticipatory multisensory integration

The brain is able to gather different sensory information to enhance salient event perception, thus yielding a unified perceptual experience of multisensory events. Multisensory integration has been widely studied, and the literature supports the hypothesis that it can occur across various stages of stimulus processing, including both bottom-up and top-down control. However, evidence on anticipatory multisensory integration occurring in the fore period preceding the presentation of the expected stimulus in passive tasks, is missing. By means of event-related potentials (ERPs), it has been recently proposed that visual and auditory unimodal stimulations are preceded by sensory-specific readiness activities. Accordingly, in the present study, we tested the occurrence of multisensory integration in the endogenous anticipatory phase of sensory processing, combining visual and auditory stimuli during unimodal and multimodal passive ERP paradigms. Results showed that the modality-specific pre-stimulus ERP components (i.e., the auditory positivity-aP-and the visual negativity-vN-) started earlier and were larger in the multimodal stimulation compared with the sum of the ERPs elicited by the unimodal stimulations. The same amplitude effect was also present for the early auditory N1 and visual P1 components. This anticipatory multisensory effect seems to influence stimulus processing, boosting the magnitude of early stimulus processing. This paves the way for new perspectives on the neural basis of multisensory integration

UVB radiation induced effects on cells studied by FTIR spectroscopy

We have made a preliminary analysis of the results about the eVects on tumoral cell line (lymphoid T cell line Jurkat) induced by UVB radiation (dose of 310 mJ/cm^2) with and without a vegetable mixture. In the present study, we have used two techniques: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and flow cytometry. FTIR spectroscopy has the potential to provide the identiWcation of the vibrational modes of some of the major compounds (lipid, proteins and nucleic acids) without being invasive in the biomaterials. The second technique has allowed us to perform measurements of cytotoxicity and to assess the percentage of apoptosis. We already studied the induction of apoptotic process in the same cell line by UVB radiation; in particular, we looked for correspondences and correlations between FTIR spetroscopy and flow cytometry data finding three highly probable spectroscopic markers of apoptosis (Pozzi et al. in Radiat Res 168:698-705, 2007). In the present work, the results have shown significant changes in the absorbance and spectral pattern in the wavenumber protein and nucleic acids regions after the treatments

Luminescent Oil-Soluble Carbon Dots toward White Light Emission: A Spectroscopic Study

Carbon dots (C-dots) are emerging as new emitting nanomaterials for optoelectronics, bioimaging, and biosensing thanks to their high quantum yield (QY), biocompatibility, low toxicity, and cost-effective sources. Although the origin of their photoluminescence (PL) mechanism (i.e., their strong blue-green emission and excitation dependent fluorescence) is still controversial, it has been demonstrated to depend on the synthetic protocols and experimental conditions, able to modify the surface properties. Here oil-dispersible C-dots, synthesized by carbonization of citric acid in the presence of hexadecylamine in high boiling organic solvent, are thoroughly investigated by systematically controlling the synthetic reaction parameters. Similarly to what was found for water-soluble C-dots, citric acid in the presence of amine-containing passivating agents improves the PL emission of C-dots via the formation of molecular fluorescent derivatives alongside the carbonization process. We demonstrate that at growth temperature of 200 °C such C-dots exhibit an interesting and intense white emission, when excited in the blue region, thus resulting in a biocompatible colloidal white emitting single nano-objects. The incorporation of the nanoparticles in a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) host matrix, to obtain free-standing nanocomposite films, is demonstrated not to affect the color point, which still falls in the white color region of the 1931 CIE diagram. Remarkably, the emission properties are retained even after several months of films exposure to air and sunlight, thus confirming the color stability of the nanoparticles against aging