Rosmarinic acid recovery from Lamiaceae plants

Póster presentado en las I Jornadas Científicas CIAL Forum 2014, celebrado en Madrid el 5 de junio de 2014.El ácido Rosmarínico es un ácido fenólico conocido por sus múltiples propiedades biológicas, tales como antioxidante, antiinflamatoria, anticancerígena y antibacteriana. Se encuentra en diferentes especies de la familia Lamiaceae, en concentraciones desde 0.01 a 9.30 mg/g. En este estudio el ácido rosmarínico ha sido recuperado de diferentes plantas de la familia de las Lamiaceae (Rosmarinus officinalis, Salvia officinalis, Melissa officinalis, Origanum Majorana) utilizando extracción sólido-líquido asistida por ultrasonidos (UAE) y extracción con líquidos presurizados (PLE). Debido a la naturaleza polar de este ácido fenólico, diferentes disolventes polares fueron estudiados, incluyendo metanol, etanol, agua y mezclas de metanol-agua (1:1). Los ensayos UAE fueron llevados a cabo usando una sonda (Branson Digital Sonifier, Branson Ultrasonics, model 250; Danbury, USA) durante 15 minutos, con agitación, y manteniendo la temperatura en 45°C. La mezcla de metanol:agua fue la que presentó mayor capacidad para la extracción de ácido rosmarínico. Además, Romero y Salvia fueron las plantas de las cuales se obtuvo extractos con mayor concentración de dicho ácido (61.7 y 46.5 mg/g, respectivamente). Los experimentos PLE fueron realizados con Salvia, a tres temperaturas diferentes: 100, 150 and 200°C utilizando la mezcla metanol:agua. Los rendimientos fueron considerablemente mayores que los obtenidos por UAE (61% a 200°C). El aumento de temperatura produce un incremento en el rendimiento de extracción y una disminución en la concentración de ácido rosmarínico en los extractos. Así, la mayor concentración de ácido rosmarínico en los ensayos PLE se obtuvo a la menor temperatura (100°C) y fue similar al obtenido mediante UAE. Por otro lado, en los extractos PLE las recuperaciones fueron aproximadamente dos veces mayores que las obtenidas por UAE (12.34 mg/g vs. 6.61 mg/g).Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el proyecto ALIBIRD-S2009/AGR-1469, de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid.Peer reviewe

I paradossi di un profeta celibatario: Lorenzo Milani prete

L'articolo indaga sulle motivazioni religiose e personali dell'azione educativa di don Milani, che per lui costituisce la risposta alle sue incertezze esistenziali, trasformate in strumento per riconoscere e sanare quelle dei giovani abbandonati a se stess

Landslide monitoring by fixed-base terrestrial stereo-photogrammetry

Photogrammetry has been used since long to periodically control the evolution of landslides; however, true monitoring is reserved to robotic total stations and ground based InSAR systems, capable of high frequency, high accurate 24h/day response. This paper presents the first results of a fixed terrestrial stereo photogrammetric system developed to monitor shape changes of the scene. The system is made of two reflex cameras, each contained in a sealed box with a control computer that periodically acquires an image and send it to a host computer; once an image pair is received from the two cameras, the DSM of the scene is generated by image correlation and made available for archiving or analysis. The system has been installed and is being tested on the Mont de la Saxe landslide, where several monitoring system are active. Some instability of the camera attitude has been noticed and is corrected with an automated procedure. First comparisons with InSAR data show a good agreement

The contribution of major risk factors and job strain to occupational class differences in coronary heart disease incidence: the MONICA Brianza and PAMELA population-based cohorts

Objectives We investigated the contribution of major coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors and job strain to occupational class differences in CHD incidence in a pooled-cohort prospective study in northern Italy. Methods 2964 men aged 25-74 from four northern Italian population-based cohorts were investigated at baseline and followed for first fatal or non-fatal CHD event (171 events). Standardised procedures were used for baseline risk factor measurements, follow-up and validation of CHD events. Four occupational classes were derived from the Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero social class scheme: higher and lower professionals and administrators, non-manual workers, skilled and unskilled manual workers, and the self-employed. HRs were estimated with Cox models. Results Among CHD-free subjects, with non-manual workers as the reference group, age-adjusted excess risks were found for professionals and administrators (+84%, p=0.02), the self-employed (+72%, p=0.04) and manual workers (+63%, p=0.04). The relationship was consistent across different CHD diagnostic categories. Adjusting for major risk factors only slightly reduced the reported excess risks. In a sub-sample of currently employed subjects, adjusting for major risk factors, sport physical activity and job strain reduced the excess risk for manual workers (relative change = -71.4%) but did not substantially modify the excess risks of professionals and administrators and the self-employed. Conclusions In our study, we found higher CHD incidence rates for manual workers, professionals and administrators, and the self-employed, compared to non-manual workers. When the entire spectrum of job categories is considered, the job strain model helped explain the CHD excess risk for manual workers but not for other occupational classes

Incorporation of an Interprofessional Palliative Care-Ethics Experience Into a Required Critical Care Acting Internship.

Introduction: The literature documents inadequate palliative medicine training in undergraduate and graduate medical education. As the population lives longer, many people will experience multiple chronic illnesses and the associated symptom burden. All physicians involved in clinical care of patients need to be equipped with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to provide palliative care, yet most physicians do not feel adequately prepared. We designed a curriculum to provide a meaningful palliative care-ethics (PCE) clinical experience to prepare senior medical students for future practice regardless of specialty choice. Methods: The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell integrated a PCE experience into the required 4-week acting internship in critical care (AICC). Students met weekly with an interprofessional faculty member and presented clinical cases focusing on communication and/or bioethical challenges. Faculty facilitators ensured that the presentations integrated discussion of communication skills. During the final session, students shared written reflections. Students were invited to complete a satisfaction survey postrotation and 1 year after graduation. Results: The curriculum was evaluated positively by the graduating classes of 2015 ( Discussion: It is feasible to incorporate an interprofessional PCE experience into a required AICC. Students indicated a better understanding of palliative care and, at 1 year postgraduation, reported feeling comfortable caring for patients with serious illness

Low temperature superlattice in monoclinic PZT

TEM has shown that the strongly piezoelectric material Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 separates into two phases at low temperatures. The majority phase is the monoclinic phase previously found by x-ray diffraction. The minority phase, with a nanoscale coherence length, is a slightly distorted variant of the first resulting from the anti-phase rotation of the oxygen octahedra about [111]. This work clears up a recent controversy about the origin of superlattice peaks in these materials, and supports recent theoretical results predicting the coexistence of ferroelectric and rotational instabilities.Comment: REVTeX4, 4 eps figures embedded. JPG version of figs. 2&4 is also include