81 research outputs found
Overall exposure of european adult population to mycotoxins by statistically modelled biomonitoring data
This study presents the exposure scenario to mycotoxins of adult population throughout Europe. The urinary biomarkers values were obtained by modelling data from two European projects. Exposure to AFB1, OTA, CIT, FBs, DON, NIV and T2/HT2 are presented. The main output obtained refers to a concern for public health about AFM1, FBs, T2/HT2 and NIV, and low concern for OTA, DON and CIT. The margin of exposure for AFM1 did not respect the reference value of 10,000 considered of low priority for risk; for Fusarium toxins, FBs and T2/HT2, probable daily intake (PDI) values resulted about ten times higher than their tolerable daily intake and NIV presented the most critical situation with a calculated PDI 30 times higher than the reference TDI value. North and South Europe scenarios were also depicted by clustering biomonitoring data. OTA and DON showed to be prevalent in Northern countries and the opposite was noticed for ZEN, higher in Southern countries. The critical issues of the availability of records feeding the dataset and of the accuracy of excretion rate for some mycotoxins are source of uncertainty for the reliability of the outputs, nevertheless the time is ripe for asking for more concrete HBM values and/or HBM-HBGV which would help in interpreting the burden of mycotoxins in Europe
Sviluppo e studio di quattro nuove leghe di zirconio. EUR 5025. = Development and study of four new zirconium alloys. EUR 5025.
Determination of Deoxynivalenol in the Urine of Pregnant Women in the UK
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most commonly occurring trichothecenes, produced mainly by Fusarium graminearum. Little is known about the effect of DON exposure or the levels of DON exposure that occur during pregnancy. The project aimed to provide data on levels of total DON and de-epoxi Deoxynivalenol (DOM-1) in pregnant human urine samples analysed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Morning urine samples were collected over two consecutive days from 42 volunteers and associated food consumption was recorded for the 24 h prior to the sample. Spearman’s rho non-parametric test for correlation was used to assess the data. Levels of DON did not differ significantly between day 1 (mean 29.7 ng/mL urine or 40.1 ng DON/mg creatinine) and day 2 (mean 28.7 ng/mL urine or 38.8 ng DON/mg creatinine ng/mL/day) urine samples. The only significant positive correlation was found between total ng DON/mg creatinine and parity (rho = 0.307, n = 42, p < 0.005 two-tailed) and total ng DON/mg creatinine with baked goods on day 1 (rho = 0.532, n = 42, p < 0.0005 two-tailed). This study provides data on the DON levels in pregnancy in this suburban population and reassurance that those levels are within acceptable limits
Evaluation of the effect of mycotoxin binders in animal feed on the analytical performance of standardised methods for the determination of mycotoxins in feed
NuSTAR Detection of the Blazar B2 1023+25 at Redshift 5.3
B2 1023+25 is an extremely radio-loud quasar at z = 5.3 that was first identified as a likely high-redshift blazar candidate in the SDSS+FIRST quasar catalog. Here, we use the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) to investigate its non-thermal jet emission, whose high-energy component we detected in the hard X-ray energy band. The X-ray flux is ~ 5.5 x 10^(-14)erg cm^(-2) s^(-1) (5-10 keV) and the photon spectral index is Γ_X ≃ 1.3-1.6. Modeling the full spectral energy distribution, we find that the jet is oriented close to the line of sight, with a viewing angle of ~3°, and has significant Doppler boosting, with a large bulk Lorentz factor ~13, which confirms the identification of B2 1023+25 as a blazar. B2 1023+25 is the first object at redshift larger than 5 detected by NuSTAR, demonstrating the ability of NuSTAR to investigate the early X-ray universe and to study extremely active supermassive black holes located at very high redshift
Prolonged oral cannabinoid administration prevents neuroinflammation, lowers β-amyloid levels and improves cognitive performance in Tg APP 2576 mice
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain shows an ongoing inflammatory condition and non-steroidal antiinflammatories
diminish the risk of suffering the neurologic disease. Cannabinoids are neuroprotective and antiinflammatory
agents with therapeutic potential.
Methods: We have studied the effects of prolonged oral administration of transgenic amyloid precursor protein
(APP) mice with two pharmacologically different cannabinoids (WIN 55,212-2 and JWH-133, 0.2 mg/kg/day in the
drinking water during 4 months) on inflammatory and cognitive parameters, and on 18F-fluoro-deoxyglucose
(18FDG) uptake by positron emission tomography (PET).
Results: Novel object recognition was significantly reduced in 11 month old Tg APP mice and 4 month
administration of JWH was able to normalize this cognitive deficit, although WIN was ineffective. Wild type mice
cognitive performance was unaltered by cannabinoid administration. Tg APP mice showed decreased 18FDG
uptake in hippocampus and cortical regions, which was counteracted by oral JWH treatment. Hippocampal GFAP
immunoreactivity and cortical protein expression was unaffected by genotype or treatment. In contrast, the density
of Iba1 positive microglia was increased in Tg APP mice, and normalized following JWH chronic treatment. Both
cannabinoids were effective at reducing the enhancement of COX-2 protein levels and TNF-a mRNA expression
found in the AD model. Increased cortical b-amyloid (Ab) levels were significantly reduced in the mouse model by
both cannabinoids. Noteworthy both cannabinoids enhanced Ab transport across choroid plexus cells in vitro.
Conclusions: In summary we have shown that chronically administered cannabinoid showed marked beneficial
effects concomitant with inflammation reduction and increased Ab clearanceThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and
Technology (SAF 2005-02845 to M.L.C). A.M.M-M. was recipient a fellowship
from the Ministry of Education and Scienc
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