The use of yeast inoculation in fermentation for port production; effect on total potential ethyl carbamate

A commercial wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae UCD 522 (pre-cultured in the presence of certain mass-labelled amino acids) was inoculated into a port must which was then allowed to ferment under controlled conditions of temperature and agitation. The influence of potential ethyl carbamate (EC) precursor formed due to yeast pre-culture, upon total potential EC levels was studied at various stages of fermentation. Pre-culture accumulation did not give rise to detectable levels of EC precursor during port fermentation

A system for phenotype harmonization in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program

Genotype-phenotype association studies often combine phenotype data from multiple studies to increase statistical power. Harmonization of the data usually requires substantial effort due to heterogeneity in phenotype definitions, study design, data collection procedures, and data-set organization. Here we describe a centralized system for phenotype harmonization that includes input from phenotype domain and study experts, quality control, documentation, reproducible results, and data-sharing mechanisms. This system was developed for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, which is generating genomic and other -omics data for more than 80 studies with extensive phenotype data. To date, 63 phenotypes have been harmonized across thousands of participants (recruited in 1948–2012) from up to 17 studies per phenotype. Here we discuss challenges in this undertaking and how they were addressed. The harmonized phenotype data and associated documentation have been submitted to National Institutes of Health data repositories for controlled access by the scientific community. We also provide materials to facilitate future harmonization efforts by the community, which include 1) the software code used to generate the 63 harmonized phenotypes, enabling others to reproduce, modify, or extend these harmonizations to additional studies, and 2) the results of labeling thousands of phenotype variables with controlled vocabulary terms

Evaluation of skin absorption of drugs from topical and transdermal formulations

ABSTRACT The skin barrier function has been attributed to the stratum corneum and represents a major challenge in clinical practice pertaining to cutaneous administration of drugs. Despite this, a large number of bioactive compounds have been successfully administered via cutaneous administration because of advances in the design of topical and transdermal formulations. In vitro and in vivo evaluations of these novel drug delivery systems are necessary to characterize their quality and efficacy. This review covers the most well-known methods for assessing the cutaneous absorption of drugs as an auxiliary tool for pharmaceutical formulation scientists in the design of drug delivery systems. In vitro methods as skin permeation assays using Franz-type diffusion cells, cutaneous retention and tape-stripping methods to study the cutaneous penetration of drugs, and in vivo evaluations as pre-clinical pharmacokinetic studies in animal models are discussed. Alternative approaches to cutaneous microdialysis are also covered. Recent advances in research on skin absorption of drugs and the effect of skin absorption enhancers, as investigated using confocal laser scanning microscopy, Raman confocal microscopy, and attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, are reviewed

Dopamine in septic patients

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Dynamic changes in microbiota and mycobiota during spontaneous 'Vino Santo Trentino' fermentation

Vino Santo is a sweet wine produced from late harvesting and pressing of Nosiola grapes in a small, well-defined geographical area in the Italian Alps. We used metagenomics to characterize the dynamics of microbial communities in the products of three wineries, resulting from spontaneous fermentation with almost the same timing and procedure. Comparing fermentation dynamics and grape microbial composition, we show a rapid increase in a small number of wine yeast species, with a parallel decrease in complexity. Despite the application of similar protocols, slight changes in the procedures led to significant differences in the microbiota in the three cases of fermentation: (i) fungal content of the must varied significantly in the different wineries, (ii) Pichia membranifaciens persisted in only one of the wineries, (iii) one fermentation was characterized by the balanced presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Hanseniaspora osmophila during the later phases. We suggest the existence of a highly winery-specific 'microbial-terroir' contributing significantly to the final product rather than a regional 'terroir'. Analysis of changes in abundance during fermentation showed evident correlations between different species, suggesting that fermentation is the result of a continuum of interaction between different species and physical-chemical parameter