Anterior Segment Tomography with the Cirrus Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical acquisition method to examine biological tissues. In recent years, OCT has become an important imaging technology used in diagnosing and following macular pathologies. Further development enabled application of optical coherence tomography in evaluation of the integrity of the nerve fiber layer, optic nerve cupping, anterior chamber angle, or corneal topography. In this manuscript we overview the use of OCT in the clinical practice to enable corneal, iris, ciliary body, and angle evaluation and diagnostics

Produção de lipase a partir de leveduras não convencionais isoladas do bagaço de caju

As lipases (E.C. 3.1.1.3) são uma classe de enzimas que catalisam a hidrólise dos triglicerídeos de ácidos gordos livres e glicerol. Essas enzimas encontram uma grande aplicação nas indústrias de alimentos, detergentes, cosméticos, síntese orgânica e farmacêutica. Neste trabalho, as leveduras Candida tropicalis e Meyerozyma caribbica isoladas do bagaço de caju foram testadas quanto à sua capacidade de produção de lipase. As fermentações foram conduzidas em agitador rotatório a 30 °C e 170 rpm. A medida da atividade foi feita através da hidrólise com o pNFL (p-nitrofenil laurato). Para a produção da enzima foi utilizado um meio de cultura contendo resíduos agroindustriais, nomeadamente melaço 10 g/L, milhocina 4 g/L, águas russas 1,0 % (v/v). A atividade do sobrenadante da C. tropicalis foi 233 ± 10 U/L e da M. caribbica foi 146 ± 7,30 U/L em 24 h de fermentação. Esses resultados mostram o potencial dessas estirpes para a produção da enzima lipase a partir de resíduos agroalimentares

The yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium thailandense LB01 produces a new biosurfactant using olive oil mill wastewater as an inducer

In this study, the biosurfactant production by an Aureobasidium thailandense LB01 was reported for the first time. Different agro-industrial by-products (corn steep liquor, sugarcane molasses, and olive oil mill wastewater) were evaluated as alternative low-cost substrates. The composition of the culture medium was optimized through response surface methodology. The highest biosurfactant production (139 ± 16 mg/L) was achieved using a culture medium containing yeast extract (2 g/L); olive oil mill wastewater (1.5%, w/w); glucose (6 g/L) and KH2PO4 (1 g/L) after 48 h of fermentation. The partially purified biosurfactant exhibited a critical micelle concentration of 550 mg/L, reducing the surface tension of water up to 31.2 mN/m. Its molecular structure was found to be similar to a lauric acid ester. The biosurfactant exhibited a better performance than the chemical surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in oil dispersion assays, thus suggesting its potential application in bioremediation.The authors acknowledge the Biotechnology laboratory (UFC) and Doctor Tatiana Nunes, as well as CAPES, CNPq and FUNCAP for the financial support. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and under the scope of the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and the Project MultiBiorefinery − Multi-purpose strategies for broadband agro-forest and fisheries by-products valorisation: a step forward for a truly integrated biorefinery (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016403). The authors also acknowledge financial support from BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) and Project BioInd − Biotechnology and Bioengineering for improved Industrial and Agro-Food processes (NORTE-07–0124-FEDER-000028) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 − Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fundus Autofluorescence in Multiple Evanescent White Dot Syndrome

A patient complained of photopsia and vision loss in the left eye for two days, with visual acuity of 20/32. Right eye was normal. Funduscopy revealed foveal granularity and gray-white lesions in the posterior pole, mainly temporal to the fovea. The lesions (dots and spots), along with a few other areas surrounding them, showed hyperautofluorescence on autofluorescence imaging. Fluorescein angiogram (FA) depicted some early hyperfluorescent dots with late staining. Indocyanine green angiogram (ICGA) showed hypofluorescent lesions in a greater number compared with funduscopy, autofluorescence, and FA. Thirty days later, BCVA was 20/20 in both eyes and the complimentary exams were almost normal, despite an ICGA that showed few small hypofluorescent lesions. This case supports the hypothesis that the choroidal involvement occurs primarily in MEWDS, with secondary involvement of the RPE and the neurosensory retina

results from a nationwide population-based study

Funding Information: This study is funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I. P. under the PhD grant SFRH/BD/148420/2019 awarded to the first author. This protocol was included in the PhD previously approved project. EpiReumpaPt was supported by unrestricted grants from Direcção-Geral da Saúde, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Fundação Champalimaud, Fundação AstraZeneca, AbbVie, Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, Bial, D3A Medical Systems, Happybrands, Center de Medicina Laboratorial Germano de Sousa, Clínica Médica da Praia da Vitória, CAL-Clínica, Galp Energia, Açoreana Seguros, and individual rheumatologists.Background: Worldwide, the current management of knee osteoarthritis appears heterogeneous, high-cost and often not based on current best evidence. The absence of epidemiological data regarding the utilisation of healthcare services may conceal the need for improvements in the management of osteoarthritis. The aim of this study is to explore the profiles of healthcare services utilisation by people with knee osteoarthritis, and to analyse their determinants, according to Andersen’s behavioural model. Methods: We analysed a sample of 978 participants diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis from the population-based study EpiReumaPt, in Portugal. Data was collected with a structured interview, and the diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis was validated by a rheumatologist team. With the Two-step Cluster procedure, we primarily identified different profiles of healthcare utilisation according to the services most used by patients with knee osteoarthritis. Secondly, we analysed the determinants of each profile, using multinomial logistic regression, according to the predisposing characteristics, enabling factors and need variables. Results: In our sample, a high proportion of participants are overweight or obese (82,6%, n = 748) and physically inactive (20,6%, n = 201) and a small proportion had physiotherapy management (14,4%, n = 141). We identified three profiles of healthcare utilisation: “HighUsers”; “GPUsers”; “LowUsers”. “HighUsers” represents more than 35% of the sample, and are also the participants with higher utilisation of medical appointments. “GPUsers” represent the participants with higher utilisation of general practitioner appointments. Within these profiles, age and geographic location – indicated as predisposing characteristics; employment status and healthcare insurance - as enabling factors; number of comorbidities, physical function, health-related quality of life, anxiety and physical exercise - as need variables, showed associations (p < 0,05) with the higher utilisation of healthcare services profiles. Conclusions: Healthcare utilisation by people with knee osteoarthritis is not driven only by clinical needs. The predisposing characteristics and enabling factors associated with healthcare utilisation reveal inequities in the access to healthcare and variability in the management of people with knee osteoarthritis. Research and implementation of whole-system strategies to improve equity in the access and quality of care are paramount in order to diminish the impact of osteoarthritis at individual-, societal- and economic-level.publishersversionpublishe

Produção de lipase a partir de Candida rugosa NRRL Y-95 utilizando meio de cultura contendo resíduos agroindustriais

As lipases (E.C. 3.1.1.3) são um grupo de enzimas capazes de catalisar a hidrólise da ligação éster de triacilgliceróis, gerando ácidos graxos livres e glicerol. As lipases microbianas são muito utilizadas nas aplicações industriais nas áreas de alimentos, síntese orgânica e farmacêutica. Neste trabalho, visando à produção de lipase a partir da levedura Candida rugosa foram utilizados meios de cultura alternativos compostos por melaço, milhocina e águas russas. As fermentações foram conduzidas em agitador rotatório a 30 °C e 170 rpm. Testaram-se quatro meios contendo diferentes combinações dos resíduos acima mencionados. O meio contendo melaço 10 g/L, milhocina 4 g/L e águas russas 1,0 %(v/v) foi o que propiciou a produção de enzima com maior atividade intracelular 269 ± 10 U/L frente ao substrato pNFL (p-nitrofenil laurato). Esses resultados demonstram que o referido meio alternativo contendo resíduos agroindustriais é adequado para a produção de lipase

Sustainable lipase production by Diutina rugosa NRRL Y-95 through a combined use of agro-industrial residues as feedstock

The potential use of alternative culture media towards the development of a sustainable bioprocess to produce lipases by Diutina rugosa is clearly demonstrated. First, a synthetic medium containing glucose, peptone, yeast extract, oleic acid, and ammonium sulfate was proposed, with lipase activity of 143 U/L. Then, alternative culture media formulated with agro-industrial residues, such as molasses, corn steep liquor (CSL), and olive mill waste (OMW), were investigated. An experimental design was conducted, and only CSL concentration was found to have a positive effect in lipase production. The highest lipase activity (561 U/L) was produced on a mixture of molasses (5 g/L), CSL (6 g/L), OMW (0.5\\% v/v), 0.5 g/L of ammonium sulfate, and 3 g/L of peptone at 24 h of cultivation. Lipase production was also carried out in a 1-L bioreactor leading to a slightly higher lipase activity at 24 h of cultivation. The semi-purified enzyme exhibits an optimum temperature and pH of 40 \textdegreeC and 7.0, respectively. Finally, the media cost per unit of lipase produced (UPC) was influenced by the medium components, specially by the inducer used. The lowest UPC was obtained when the agro-industrial residues were combined and used at the improved concentrations.The study is funded by CAPES, CNPq, and FUNCAP (from Brazil) for the financial support that made this work possible. In addition, the study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit, the BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020-Programa Operacional Regional do Norte, and the Project LIGNOZYMES (POCI-01-0145- FEDER-029773).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhanced oil recovery under laboratory conditions using biosurfactant-producing microorganisms

Oil recovery comprises a primary phase, which produces oil using the natural pressure drive of the reservoir, and a secondary phase, which includes the injection of water to improve the flow of oil to the wellhead [1,2]. While primary recovery produces 5-10% of the original oil in place, recovery efficiencies in the secondary stage vary from 10% to 40% [1]. Most of the unrecovered oil (up to two-thirds of the total oil reserves) is trapped in the reservoir pores by high capillary forces [2]. Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is a tertiary oil recovery process where microorganisms and their metabolites are used to retrieve unrecoverable oil from mature reservoirs. Stimulation of biosurfactant production by indigenous or injected microorganisms can reduce the capillary forces that retain the oil into the reservoir. In this work, a sand pack column model was designed to simulate the oil recovery operations in oil reservoirs and evaluate the mobilization of residual oil by microorganisms. Three Bacillus subtilis strains (309, 311 and 573), previously isolated from crude oil samples, were used in this study. They grow and produce extracellular biosurfactants at 40ºC under anaerobic conditions in medium supplemented with hydrocarbons. Biosurfactants produced by those isolates reduce the surface tension of water from 72 to 30 mN/m, exhibit emulsifying activity and are not affected by exposure to high temperatures (121ºC) which makes them good candidates for application in biosurfactant mediated MEOR. Acrylic columns (250 ml) packed with acid washed sand were first flooded with water, after that saturated with paraffin, and then washed with water to remove the excess of paraffin. Afterwards, the isolates were injected into the columns with the optimized medium and incubated at 40ºC. After 14 days, the columns were flooded with water and the additional oil recovery (AOR) was calculated as the percentage of paraffin recovered. AOR using B. subtilis 309, 311 and 573 was 35.0 ± 1.0 %, 23.5 ± 1.2 % and 19.8 ± 1.9 %, respectively. The results obtained suggest that stimulation of biosurfactant production by these strains in the oil reservoir can contribute to mobilize entrapped oi

Isolation and study of microorganisms from oil samples for application in Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery

"Author's personal copy"Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) is potentially useful to increment oil recovery from a reservoir beyond primary and secondary recovery operations using microorganisms and their metabolites. Stimulation of bacterial growth for biosurfactant production and degradation of heavy oil fractions by indigenous microorganisms can enhance the fluidity and reduce the capillary forces that retain the oil into the reservoir. MEOR offers major advantages over conventional EOR, namely low energy consumption and independence of the price of crude oil. In this work, the isolation and identification of microorganisms capable of producing biosurfactants and promote degradation of long-chain n-alkanes under conditions existent in oil reservoirs were addressed. Among the isolated microorganisms, five Bacillus strains were able to produce extracellular biosurfactants at 40 C under anaerobic conditions in medium supplemented with hydrocarbons. Three isolates were selected as the higher biosurfactant producers. The obtained biosurfactants reduced the surface tension of water from 72 to 30 mN/m, exhibited emulsifying activity and were not affected by exposure to high temperatures (121 C). These characteristics make them good candidates for use at conditions usually existing in oil reservoirs. Furthermore, it was here shown for the first time that Bacillus strains were able to degrade large alkyl chains and reduce the viscosity of hydrocarbon mixtures under anaerobic conditions. The results obtained show that the isolated microorganisms are promising candidates for the development of enhanced oil recovery processes.This work was supported by PARTEX OIL AND GAS. Jorge F. B. Pereira acknowledges the financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through doctoral research grant SFRH/BD/60228/2009