Antimicrobial activity and chemical compositions of Turkish propolis from different regions

The antimicrobial activity of propolis against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and its chemical composition were evaluated by the method of agar-well diffusion and GC-MS, respectively. Some typical compounds samples were identified in the propolis samples. Principal component analysis revealed that the chemical composition of propolis samples was distinct based on the geographical location of the samples. It was found that flavonoids, chrysin, flavanones and cinnamic acid were the predominant compounds in the propolis sample

Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Morchella conica Pers.

Antioxidant capacity and antimicrobial activities of Morchella conica Pers. extracts obtained with ethanol were investigated in this study. Four complementary test systems; namely DPPH free radical scavenging, -carotene/linoleic acid systems, total phenolic compounds and total flavonoid concentration were used. Inhibition values of M. conica ethanol extracts, buthylated hydroxyanisol (BHA) and -tocopherol standards were found to be 96.9, 98.9 and 99.2%, respectively, at aconcentration of 160 ìg/ml. When compared the inhibition levels of methanol extract of M. conica and standards in linoleic acid system, it was observed that the higher the concentration of both M. conicaethanol extract and the standards the higher the inhibition effect. Total flavonoid amount was 9.17±0.56ìg mg-1 quercetin equivalent while the phenolic compound amount was 41.93±0.29 ìg mg-1 pyrocatecholequivalent in the ethanolic extract. The antimicrobial effect of M. conica ethanol extract was tested against six species of Gram-positive bacteria, seven species of Gram-negative bacteria and one speciesof yeast. The M. conica ethanol extract had a narrow antibacterial spectrum against tested microorganisms. The most susceptible bacterium was M. flavus. The crude extract was found active on S. aureus ATCC 25923 and S. aureus Cowan I. The M. conica ethanol extract did not exhibit anticandidal activity against C. albican

Free-radical scavenging capacity and antimicrobial activity of wild edible mushroom from Turkey

Antioxidant capacity and antimicrobial activities of Ramaria flava (Schaeff) Quel. (RF) extracts obtained with ethanol were investigated in this study. Four complementary test systems; namely DPPH freeradical scavenging, -carotene/linoleic acid systems, total phenolic compounds and total flavonoid concentration have been used. Inhibition values of R. flava extracts, BHA and -tocopherol standardswere found to be 94.7, 98.9 and 99.2%, respectively, at 160ƒÊg/ml. When compared the inhibition levels of ethanol extract of R. flava and standards in linoleic acid system, it was observed that the higher theconcentration of both RF ethanol extract and the standards the higher the inhibition effect. Total flavonoid amount was 8.27}0.28 ƒÊg mg-1 quercetin equivalent while the total phenolic compound amountwas 39.83}0.32 ƒÊg mg-1 pyrocatechol equivalent in the ethanolic extract. The ethanol extract of R. flava inhibited the growth of Gram-positive bacteria better than Gram-negative bacteria and yeast. The crude extract showed no antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Morganella morganii and Proteus vulgaris. The antimicrobial activity profile of R. flava against tested strains indicated that Micrococcus flavus, Micrococcus luteus and Yersinia enterocolitica was the most susceptible bacteria of all the test strains. R. flava was found to be inactive against Candida albicans

The catalytic subunit of the system L1 amino acid transporter (S<i>lc7a5</i>) facilitates nutrient signalling in mouse skeletal muscle

The System L1-type amino acid transporter mediates transport of large neutral amino acids (LNAA) in many mammalian cell-types. LNAA such as leucine are required for full activation of the mTOR-S6K signalling pathway promoting protein synthesis and cell growth. The SLC7A5 (LAT1) catalytic subunit of high-affinity System L1 functions as a glycoprotein-associated heterodimer with the multifunctional protein SLC3A2 (CD98). We generated a floxed Slc7a5 mouse strain which, when crossed with mice expressing Cre driven by a global promoter, produced Slc7a5 heterozygous knockout (Slc7a5+/-) animals with no overt phenotype, although homozygous global knockout of Slc7a5 was embryonically lethal. Muscle-specific (MCK Cre-mediated) Slc7a5 knockout (MS-Slc7a5-KO) mice were used to study the role of intracellular LNAA delivery by the SLC7A5 transporter for mTOR-S6K pathway activation in skeletal muscle. Activation of muscle mTOR-S6K (Thr389 phosphorylation) in vivo by intraperitoneal leucine injection was blunted in homozygous MS-Slc7a5-KO mice relative to wild-type animals. Dietary intake and growth rate were similar for MS-Slc7a5-KO mice and wild-type littermates fed for 10 weeks (to age 120 days) with diets containing 10%, 20% or 30% of protein. In MS-Slc7a5-KO mice, Leu and Ile concentrations in gastrocnemius muscle were reduced by ∼40% as dietary protein content was reduced from 30 to 10%. These changes were associated with >50% decrease in S6K Thr389 phosphorylation in muscles from MS-Slc7a5-KO mice, indicating reduced mTOR-S6K pathway activation, despite no significant differences in lean tissue mass between groups on the same diet. MS-Slc7a5-KO mice on 30% protein diet exhibited mild insulin resistance (e.g. reduced glucose clearance, larger gonadal adipose depots) relative to control animals. Thus, SLC7A5 modulates LNAA-dependent muscle mTOR-S6K signalling in mice, although it appears non-essential (or is sufficiently compensated by e.g. SLC7A8 (LAT2)) for maintenance of normal muscle mass

Introduction: Ambidextrous open innovation in the 4th Industrial Revolution

With the popularity of artificial intelligence, big data and Internet of Things, business nowadays is featured with technology advancement, open innovation and collaboration. This happens particularly in the manufacturing sectors, known as the Industrial 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution. Alongside this trend, there is also a movement towards servitisation and service innovation. In the financial service sector, FinTech firms, traditional large firms, intermediaries, users and regulators are actively engaged together to develop a smart system of banking, investing and insurance service. Nevertheless, the sector is facing challenges in relation to security, trust and external disruptions. To solve this, first, this article builds an ambidextrous open innovation model with multi-dimensions, which are motivated by the arriving of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Second, this article applies the ambidextrous open innovation model with multi-dimensions to the financial sectors to validate the model basically. Third, this model is applied to several research studies to obtain additional validation of it

A Randomized Study Comparing Digital Imaging to Traditional Glass Slide Microscopy for Breast Biopsy and Cancer Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Digital whole slide imaging may be useful for obtaining second opinions and is used in many countries. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires verification studies. METHODS: Pathologists were randomized to interpret one of four sets of breast biopsy cases during two phases, separated by ≥9 months, using glass slides or digital format (sixty cases per set, one slide per case, RESULTS: Sixty-five percent of responding pathologists were eligible, and 252 consented to randomization; 208 completed Phase I (115 glass, 93 digital); and 172 completed Phase II (86 glass, 86 digital). Accuracy was slightly higher using glass compared to digital format and varied by category: invasive carcinoma, 96% versus 93% ( CONCLUSIONS: In this large randomized study, digital format interpretations were similar to glass slide interpretations of benign and invasive cancer cases. However, cases in the middle of the spectrum, where more inherent variability exists, may be more problematic in digital format. Future studies evaluating the effect these findings exert on clinical practice and patient outcomes are required

Capturing Global Spatial Context for Accurate Cell Classification in Skin Cancer Histology

The spectacular response observed in clinical trials of immunotherapy in patients with previously uncurable Melanoma, a highly aggressive form of skin cancer, calls for a better understanding of the cancer-immune interface. Computational pathology provides a unique opportunity to spatially dissect such interface on digitised pathological slides. Accurate cellular classification is a key to ensure meaningful results, but is often challenging even with state-of-art machine learning and deep learning methods. We propose a hierarchical framework, which mirrors the way pathologists perceive tumour architecture and define tumour heterogeneity to improve cell classification methods that rely solely on cell nuclei morphology. The SLIC superpixel algorithm was used to segment and classify tumour regions in low resolution H&E-stained histological images of melanoma skin cancer to provide a global context. Classification of superpixels into tumour, stroma, epidermis and lumen/white space, yielded a 97.7% training set accuracy and 95.7% testing set accuracy in 58 whole-tumour images of the TCGA melanoma dataset. The superpixel classification was projected down to high resolution images to enhance the performance of a single cell classifier, based on cell nuclear morphological features, and resulted in increasing its accuracy from 86.4% to 91.6%. Furthermore, a voting scheme was proposed to use global context as biological a priori knowledge, pushing the accuracy further to 92.8%. This study demonstrates how using the global spatial context can accurately characterise the tumour microenvironment and allow us to extend significantly beyond single-cell morphological classification.Comment: Accepted by MICCAI COMPAY 2018 worksho