Avaliação microbiológica e físico-química de açúcares mascavo comerciais.

Este trabalho teve como objetivos analisar parâmetros microbiológicos e físico-químicos de 31 marcas de açúcares mascavos. Foram realizadas as análises microbiológicas (bactérias mesófi las totais, bolores e leveduras, coliformes totais, Escherichia coli e Salmonella) e físico-químicas (polarização, umidade, cinzas condutimétricas, cor ICUMSA, açúcar redutor, açúcar redutor total e pH). Os resultados microbiológicos indicaram que houve resultados acima do limite do of ?National Food Canners and Processors? apenas para bactérias mesófi las totais. A legislação brasileira estabelece o teor mínimo de 90oS para sacarose como único parâmetro para avaliação do açúcar mascavo, sendo que apenas sete amostras atendiam ao padrão. Os resultados de umidade variaram de 2,13 a 6,02% para cinzas; de 1,15 a 3,45%;açúcares redutores; de 1,17 a 8,51%, redutores totais de 68,90 a 98,21%; pH de 5,24 a 7,8 e cor ICUMSA de 174,6 a 574,5 U.I indicando que os açúcares mascavos comercializados no Brasil não possuem padrão de produção, armazenamento e qualidade fi nal, indicado pelas diferenças dos parâmetros avaliados

Test de puntaje compuesto para la elección del tratamiento de deshidratación osmótica adecuado en muestras de anco

El test de puntaje compuesto es un test de respuesta objetiva que permite realizar una evaluación comparativa de las muestras en estudio. El puntaje se establece para cada variable o característica de acuerdo a su grado de importancia y la muestra perfecta debería tener un puntaje de 100 puntos. El objetivo de este trabajo fue aplicar el método de puntaje compuesto para elegir desde el punto de vista subjetivo el tratamiento de deshidratación osmótica (DO) adecuado en muestras de anco mínimamente procesadas. Para ello, se cortaron cubos de anco (Cucurbita moschata) de 1.0 cm de lado y se colocaron en 4 soluciones osmodeshidratantes durante 3 horas: 1) sacarosa 55°Bx, 2) sacarosa 55°Bx- 2% NaCl, 3) sacarosa 55°Bx-2% Lactato de calcio y 4) sacarosa 55°Bx-2% NaCL-2% Lactato de calcio. Las muestras fueron envasadas y almacenadas durante 7 y 10 días a 4º C, incluida la muestra testigo 0 (sin tratamiento de DO). Posteriormente se realizó el análisis sensorial con ocho panelistas semientrenados, incluyendo apariencia, olor, sabor y textura. La apariencia se ponderó con un 40%, de lo cuál se evaluó conservación de forma, color y exudado con 10, 10 y 20% respectivamente. El atributo olor representó el 30%, del cuál se evaluó olor típico (10%) y olor a fermentado (20%). Finalmente, el aspecto sabor (20%) y textura bucal (10%) sumaron el 100% del análisis sensorial del producto. Los atributos se expresaron numéricamente en una escala de 1 a 5, donde los valores extremos corresponden al mejor y peor valor del atributo respectivamente, por lo tanto el valor 100 corresponde a la mejor y 500 a la peor muestra. Luego de 7 días de almacenamiento, se obtuvieron los valores 150, 160, 250, 280 y 310 para las muestras 1, 0, 2, 4 y 3 respectivamente; y al cabo de 10 días de almacenamiento se obtuvieron los valores 180, 210, 270, 350 y 380 para las muestras 0, 1, 2, 3 y 4 respectivamente De este análisis sensorial se concluye que el tratamiento 1 resulta ser el más adecuado sensorialmente, tanto a los 7 como 10 días, teniendo en cuenta que si bien se evaluó la muestra sin tratamiento, el objetivo es aplicar la DO como método de conservación. Finalmente, es necesario complementar este resultado con un análisis microbiológico para estimar su vida útil y en consecuencia el tratamiento adecuado.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimento

Evaluation of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, nerve growth factor and memory in adult rats survivors of the neonatal meningitis by Streptococcus agalactiae

AbstractStreptococcus agalactiae (GBS) is a major cause of severe morbidity and mortality in neonates and young infants, causing sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. The survivors from this meningitis can suffer serious long-term neurological consequences, such as, seizures, hearing loss, learning and memory impairments. Neurotrophins, such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) control the neuronal cell death during the brain development and play an important role in neuronal differentiation, survival and growth of neurons. Neonate Wistar rats, received either 10μL of sterile saline as a placebo or an equivalent volume of GBS suspension at a concentration of 1×106cfu/mL. Sixty days after induction of meningitis, the animals underwent behavioral tests, after were killed and the hippocampus and cortex were retired for analyze of the BDNF and NGF levels. In the open-field demonstrated no difference in motor, exploratory activity and habituation memory between the groups. The step-down inhibitory avoidance, when we evaluated the long-term memory at 24h after training session, we found that the meningitis group had a decrease in aversive memory when compared with the long-term memory test of the sham group. BDNF levels decreased in hippocampus and cortex; however the NGF levels decreased only in hippocampus. These findings suggest that the meningitis model could be a good research tool for the study of the biological mechanisms involved in the behavioral alterations secondary to GBS meningitis

Detecting somaclonal variation during micropropagation of vine rootstocks using SSR molecular marker and flow cytometery analysis.

Resumo

Dexamethasone Treatment Reverses Cognitive Impairment but Increases Brain Oxidative Stress in Rats Submitted to Pneumococcal Meningitis

Pneumococcal meningitis is associated with a significant mortality rate and neurologic sequelae. The animals received either 10 μL of saline or a S. pneumoniae suspension and were randomized into different groups: sham: placebo with dexamethasone 0.7 mg/kg/1 day; placebo with dexamethasone 0.2 mg/kg/7 days; meningitis groups: dexamethasone 0.7 mg/kg/1 day and dexamethasone 0.2 mg/kg/7 days. Ten days after induction we evaluated memory and oxidative stress parameters in hippocampus and cortex. In the step-down inhibitory avoidance task, we observed memory impairment in the meningitis group with dexamethasone 0.2 mg/kg/7 days. The lipid peroxidation was increased in hippocampus in the meningitis groups with dexamethasone and in cortex only in the meningitis group with dexamethasone 0.2 mg/kg/7 days. The protein carbonyl was increased in hippocampus in the meningitis groups with dexamethasone and in cortex in the meningitis groups with and without dexamethasone. There was a decrease in the proteins integrity in hippocampus in all groups receiving treatment with dexamethasone and in cortex in all groups with dexamethasone (0.7 mg/kg/1 day). The mitochondrial superoxide was increased in the hippocampus and cortex in the meningitis group with dexamethasone 0.2 mg/kg/7 days. Our findings demonstrate that dexamethasone reverted cognitive impairment but increased brain oxidative stress in hippocampus and cortex in Wistar rats ten days after pneumococcal meningitis induction

Emissions of primary aerosol and precursor gases in the year 2000 and 1750 prescribed data-sets for AeroCom.

Inventories for global aerosol and aerosol precursor emissions have been collected (based on published inventories and published simulations), assessed and prepared for the year 2000 (present-day conditions) and for the year 1750 (pre-industrial conditions). These global datasets establish a comprehensive source for emission input to global modeling, when simulating the aerosol impact on climate with state-of-the-art aerosol component modules. As these modules stratify aerosol into dust, sea-salt, sulfate, organic matter and soot, for all these aerosol types global fields on emission strength and recommendations for injection altitude and particulate size are provided. Temporal resolution varies between daily (dust and sea-salt), monthly (wild-land fires) and annual (all other emissions). These datasets benchmark aerosol emissions according to the knowledge in the year 2004. They are intended to serve as systematic constraints in sensitivity studies of the AeroCom initiative, which seeks to quantify (actual) uncertainties in aerosol global modeling

Antibacterial Solution Using Cinnamomum verum (Cinammon) and Cympobogon citratus (Lemongrass) Essential Oils with Hydrogen Peroxide Against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli

Amidst the pandemic, millions of impoverished Filipinos lack sufficient access to sanitation services that protect them from bacterial infections. As such, this study endeavored to formulate a disinfectant spray of hydrogen peroxide and varying concentrations of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) essential oils to produce a maximally effective solution. Due to their natural origin, these essential oils were chosen for their extensive antibacterial properties, affordable price, and low toxicity levels. Six disinfectant spray solutions containing different concentrations of either essential oil were tested against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria through the agar disk diffusion method. After analyzing the data using mean, standard deviation, and MANOVA, it was found that including cinnamon and lemongrass essential oil had no statistically significant effect on the antibacterial activity of the hydrogen peroxide solution, regardless of the concentration of essential oil used, p \u3e 0.05. However, the lemongrass samples were slightly more effective than the cinnamon solutions. Thus, future researchers are encouraged to investigate other components that can potentially increase the antibacterial activity of a disinfectant spray

Middle ear microbiome differences in indigenous Filipinos with chronic otitis media due to a duplication in the A2ML1 gene

Middle ear microbial profiles of indigenous Filipinos with chronic otitis media. All panels compare carriers with non-carriers of the A2ML1 duplication variant. Panel description: (A) ι-diversity by observed OTUs; (B) ι-diversity by the Shannon diversity index; (C) β-diversity from unweighted UniFrac principal coordinate analysis; (D) β-diversity from weighted UniFrac principal coordinate analysis. (PDF 1019 kb

Down-Regulation of Serum/Glucocorticoid Regulated Kinase 1 in Colorectal Tumours Is Largely Independent of Promoter Hypermethylation

Background: We have previously shown that serum/glucocorticoid regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is down-regulated in colorectal cancers (CRC) with respect to normal tissue. As hyper-methylation of promoter regions is a well-known mechanism of gene silencing in cancer, we tested whether the SGK1 promoter region was methylated in colonic tumour samples. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the methylation profile of the two CpG islands present in the promoter region of SGK1 in a panel of 5 colorectal cancer cell lines by sequencing clones of bisulphite-treated DNA samples. We further confirmed our findings in a panel of 10 normal and 10 tumour colonic tissue samples of human origin. We observed CpG methylation only in the smaller and more distal CpG island in the promoter region of SGK1 in both normal and tumour samples of colonic origin. We further identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs1743963) which affects methylation of the corresponding CpG. Conclusions/Significance: Our results show that even though partial methylation of the promoter region of SGK1 is present