Strategies to overcome interferences during biomass monitoring with dielectric spectroscopy

Dielectric spectroscopy is extensively used to measure the level of viable biomass during fermentations but can suffer from interference by a variety of factors including the presence of dead cells, bubbles, electric and magnetic fields, changes in the medium composition, conductivity changes and the presence of non-cellular particles. Three different approaches were used to overcome these problems. The first involved the separate measurement of the spectra of the interferent and the cells. If the spectra were significantly different then spectra containing the signals of both cells and the interferent could be deconvoluted to separately determine the relative contribution of the cells and the interferent to the spectra. This deconvolution approach was successfully used to estimate the biomass levels of yeast in the presence of spent grains of barley and hardwood in the medium. A similar approach allowed the interference of electrode polarisation on spectra of yeast and microalgae to be compensated for. An attempt to determine the concentration of non-viable cells in a mixture of dead and live cells was less successful because the signal of the non-viable cells was quite small compared to that of viable cells. A second approach involved the use of a filter to keep the interferent away from the probe surface. This was used successfully in the measurement of the yeast concentration in the presence of spent barley grains. A third approach involved the use of a second sensor in addition to the biomass sensor. This allows the signal of the biomass sensor to be compensated for the interferent. In one set of experiments microelectrodes were developed which were able to confine the electric field to a small volume near the electrode surface. Covering the electrode surface with a gel or a membrane stopped cells from entering this volume whilst allowing medium to diffuse through. This allowed the measurement of changes in the electrical properties of the medium without a contribution by the cells. Whilst this approach worked, the response time was too long for practical use. More successful was the simultaneous measurement of the biomass with an infrared optical probe and a dielectric probe. It was found that the signal of the optical probe was independent of the cell viability, whilst the dielectric probe was quite insensitive to non-viable cells. The combined use of the dielectric probe and the optical probe allowed the culture viability to be determined in a straightforward manner

Finding directionality and gene-disease predictions in disease associations

Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms in human diseases is important for diagnosis and treatment of complex conditions and has traditionally been done by establishing associations between disorder-genes and their associated diseases. This kind of network analysis usually includes only the interaction of molecular components and shared genes. The present study offers a network and association analysis under a bioinformatics frame involving the integration of HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee approved gene symbols, KEGG metabolic pathways and ICD-10-CM codes for the analysis of human diseases based on the level of inclusion and hypergeometric enrichment between genes and metabolic pathways shared by the different human disorders. Methods: The present study offers the integration of HGNC approved gene symbols, KEGG metabolic pathways andICD-10-CM codes for the analysis of associations based on the level of inclusion and hypergeometricenrichment between genes and metabolic pathways shared by different diseases. Results: 880 unique ICD-10-CM codes were mapped to the 4315 OMIM phenotypes and 3083 genes with phenotype-causing mutation. From this, a total of 705 ICD-10-CM codes were linked to 1587 genes with phenotype-causing mutations and 801 KEGG pathways creating a tripartite network composed by 15,455 code-gene-pathway interactions. These associations were further used for an inclusion analysis between diseases along with gene-disease predictions based on a hypergeometric enrichment methodology. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that even though a large number of genes and metabolic pathways are shared between diseases of the same categories, inclusion levels between these genes and pathways are directional and independent of the disease classification. However, the gene-disease-pathway associations can be used for prediction of new gene-disease interactions that will be useful in drug discovery and therapeutic applications

FANTASMAS NO BERÇO E O PSIQUISMO DO BEBÊ

O objetivo deste artigo é oferecer uma compreensão psicanalítica a respeito dos aspectos inconscientes da relação pais-bebê, e analisar a importância fundamental do tipo de cuidado dispensado pelos pais para a estruturação da personalidade do bebê. Palavras-chave: Relação. Pais. Bebê. Inconsciente. Personalidade

BioMet Toolbox 2.0: genome-wide analysis of metabolism and omics data

Analysis of large data sets using computational and mathematical tools have become a central part of biological sciences. Large amounts of data are being generated each year from different biological research fields leading to a constant development of software and algorithms aimed to deal with the increasing creation of information. The BioMet Toolbox 2.0 integrates a number of functionalities in a user-friendly environment enabling the user to work with biological data in a web interface. The unique and distinguishing feature of the BioMet Toolbox 2.0 is to provide a web user interface to tools for metabolic pathways and omics analysis developed under different platform-dependent environments enabling easy access to these computational tools

A proteome-integrated, carbon source dependent genetic regulatory network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Integrated regulatory networks can be powerful tools to examine and test properties of cellular systems, such as modelling environmental effects on the molecular bioeconomy, where protein levels are altered in response to changes in growth conditions. Although extensive regulatory pathways and protein interaction data sets exist which represent such networks, few have formally considered quantitative proteomics data to validate and extend them. We generate and consider such data here using a label-free proteomics strategy to quantify alterations in protein abundance for S. cerevisiae when grown on minimal media using glucose, galactose, maltose and trehalose as sole carbon sources. Using a high quality-controlled subset of proteins observed to be differentially abundant, we constructed a proteome-informed network, comprising 1850 transcription factor interactions and 37 chaperone interactions, which defines the major changes in the cellular proteome when growing under different carbon sources. Analysis of the differentially abundant proteins involved in the regulatory network pointed to their significant roles in specific metabolic pathways and function, including glucose homeostasis, amino acid biosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolic process. We noted strong statistical enrichment in the differentially abundant proteome of targets of known transcription factors associated with stress responses and altered carbon metabolism. This shows how such integrated analysis can lend further experimental support to annotated regulatory interactions, since the proteomic changes capture both magnitude and direction of gene expression change at the level of the affected proteins. Overall this study highlights the power of quantitative proteomics to help define regulatory systems pertinent to environmental conditions

Gestión de capacitación y desempeño laboral en el área administrativa, de una entidad gubernamental, Pallasca – Ancash 2022

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar la relación entre la Gestión de capacitación y el desempeño laboral en el área administrativa, de una entidad gubernamental, Pallasca - Ancash 2022. Se elaboró bajo el enfoque cuantitativo de tipo aplicada, a través del diseño no experimental, de corte transversal y de alcance correlacionan causal. Se estudió a la población, constituida por 35 servidores, siendo una muestra censal, se aplicó como instrumento el cuestionario, el cual fue sometido a la prueba de validez y confiabilidad. El análisis se realizó mediante la estadística descriptica con tablas y figuras de frecuencias, y para la correlación entre variables se aplicó la estadística inferencial por medio del Coeficiente Rho de Spearman. Se obtuvieron resultados que el nivel de la variable 1 fue de 74.3% mientras que el nivel de la variable 2 fue 62.9 %; asimismo, las dimensiones de gestión de capacitación se relacionaron significativamente con el desempeño laboral con un p-valor inferior al 0.05 y finalmente, se concluye que la variable 1 tuvo una correlación significativa con la variable 2 (Rho = 0.980 considerándose Significativa), aceptándose la Hi, lo que significa que mejorando la gestión de capacitación se incrementará el desempeño laboral

Inventário de Depressão Infantil (CDI): uma revisão de artigos científicos brasileiros

Despite the consensus among health professionals regarding the recognition of depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence, their diagnosis still presents difficulties. The literature points to the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) as a widely used instrument to measure this construct. This article reviews the scientific articles about the CDI published in Brazilian journals from 2000 to 2010. It was found that most of the research studies were conducted after 2005, in school settings, with both boys and girls, and aimed to evaluate the association of depressive symptoms and psychosocial variables. The studies reported good reliability indices for the CDI, however, there were differences regarding its factorial structure. New studies are necessary to prove the validity of the CDI as a useful measure to evaluate depressive symptoms in children and adolescents.Key words: review, childhood depression, CDI, evaluation.Apesar do consenso entre profissionais da saúde quanto ao reconhecimento dos sintomas depressivos na infância e na adolescência, seu diagnóstico ainda apresenta dificuldades. A literatura aponta o Inventário de Depressão Infantil (CDI) como um instrumento bastante utilizado para medir este construto. O presente estudo revisa os artigos científicos sobre o CDI, publicados em periódicos brasileiros no período de 2000 a 2010. Verificou-se que a maior parte das pesquisas foi conduzida a partir de 2005, no contexto escolar, com meninos e meninas e com o objetivo de verificar a associação de sintomas depressivos e variáveis psicossociais. As pesquisas reportaram bons índices de confiabilidade para o CDI, contudo, houve diferenças quanto à sua estrutura fatorial. Evidencia-se, assim, a necessidade de novos estudos que apontem novas evidências de validade do CDI como um instrumento útil para avaliar sintomas depressivos em crianças e adolescentes.Palavras-chave: revisão, depressão infantil, CDI, avaliação

La enseñanza de la arquitectura en primer año: estudios comparados

Esta comunicación hace parte del proyecto de investigación: “La enseñanza de la arquitectura en primer año”, adelantado por el grupo de investigación en Arquitectura, Ciudad y Educación -ACE, del programa de Arquitectura de la Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá-Colombia. El proyecto se origina a partir del compromiso con la educación en arquitectura y en particular con la formación en la etapa inicial, primer año o ciclo básico. Plantea la revisión de planes de estudio en diversas escuelas con el propósito de analizar los contenidos (proyectuales, históricos, técnicos, urbanísticos), las metodologías de transmisión de conocimiento y proponer un modelo de enseñanza que permita orientar estrategias aplicables en diversos planes curriculares, además de construir un material de referencia útil sobre educación en arquitectura. Esta comunicación se centra en la apertura de cuatro temáticas transversales que permiten orientar la discusión a problemáticas comunes susceptibles de ser verificadas en las diferentes áreas de conocimiento en que se compartimentan los programas de arquitectura, en particular en primer año de formación. The following proposal is part of the research project: “First Year Architectural Education”, lead by the research group in Architecture, City and Education-ACE, of the Architecture program at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá-Colombia. The project emerges from the commitment to education in architecture and in particular with the training in the initial stage: the first year. The project intends to review curricula at various schools, extract their contents (architectural design, history, construction and urbanism related) and their methodologies of knowledge transfer, in order to propose a teaching model that suggests strategies applicable in various curricula, as well as to contribute knowledge on architectural education. This paper focuses on the proposals of four cross-subjects or common problems in different knowledge areas in which architecture teaching use to be divided, especially in its first year

Human Erythroid Progenitors Are Directly Infected by SARS-CoV-2: Implications for Emerging Erythropoiesis in Severe COVID-19 Patients

We document here that intensive care COVID-19 patients suffer a profound decline in hemoglobin levels but show an increase of circulating nucleated red cells, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 infection either directly or indirectly induces stress erythropoiesis. We show that ACE2 expression peaks during erythropoiesis and renders erythroid progenitors vulnerable to infection by SARS-CoV-2. Early erythroid progenitors, defined as CD34-CD117+CD71+CD235a-, show the highest levels of ACE2 and constitute the primary target cell to be infected during erythropoiesis. SARS-CoV-2 causes the expansion of colony formation by erythroid progenitors and can be detected in these cells after 2 weeks of the initial infection. Our findings constitute the first report of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in erythroid progenitor cells and can contribute to understanding both the clinical symptoms of severe COVID-19 patients and how the virus can spread through the circulation to produce local inflammation in tissues, including the bone marrow

Activation of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase, RET, improves long-term Hematopoietic Stem Cell outgrowth and potency

Expansion of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) is a rapidly advancing field showing great promise for clinical applications. Recent evidence has implicated the nervous system and glial family ligands (GFLs) as potential drivers of hematopoietic survival and self-renewal in the bone marrow niche, but how to apply this to HSC maintenance and expansion is yet to be explored. We demonstrate a role for the GFL receptor, RET, at the cell surface of HSCs, in mediating sustained cellular growth, resistance to stress and improved cell survival throughout in vitro expansion. HSCs treated with the key RET ligand/co-receptor complex, GDNF/GFRa1, show improved progenitor function at primary transplantation and improved long-term HSC function at secondary transplantation. Finally, we demonstrate that RET drives a multi-faceted intracellular signalling pathway, including key signalling intermediates AKT, ERK1/2, NFkB and p53, responsible for a wide range of cellular and genetic responses which improve cell growth and survival under culture conditions