Ultrasonic intensification as a tool for enhanced microbial biofuel yields

peer-reviewedUltrasonication has recently received attention as a novel bioprocessing tool for process intensification in many areas of downstream processing. Ultrasonic intensification (periodic ultrasonic treatment during the fermentation process) can result in a more effective homogenization of biomass and faster energy and mass transfer to biomass over short time periods which can result in enhanced microbial growth. Ultrasonic intensification can allow the rapid selective extraction of specific biomass components and can enhance product yields which can be of economic benefit. This review focuses on the role of ultrasonication in the extraction and yield enhancement of compounds from various microbial sources, specifically algal and cyanobacterial biomass with a focus on the production of biofuels. The operating principles associated with the process of ultrasonication and the influence of various operating conditions including ultrasonic frequency, power intensity, ultrasonic duration, reactor designs and kinetics applied for ultrasonic intensification are also described

Advances on metabolism and disposition of Bbnzimidazoles anthelmintic in Fasciola hepatica: its contribution to the phenomenon of anthelmintic resistance

The fascioliasis is an important zoonotic disease, particularly in underdeveloped countries. In fascioliasis, the anthelmintic control has been done mainly by the use of triclabendazole (TCBZ), which is metabolized into the anti-helmintic metabolite, sulphoxide in the host liver and targeted to the subcellular fractions of the parasite, Fasciola hepatica (Liver Fluke). The existence of genetically different populations of liver fluke could allow, against any selection pressure, natural or artificial (for use fasciolicidesproducts and/or control measures), one or more populations of F. hepatica to be able to survive and create resistance or adaptability to such selective pressure. It is known that the uptake and effects of TCBZ and the sulfoxide metabolite is significantly greater in TCBZ-susceptible isolates in comparison to the TCBZ-resistant flukes. This result are analyzed in the present contribution.Fil: Solana, Hugo Daniel. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Laboratorio de Biología Celular y Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Scarcella, Silvana Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Solana, María Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; Argentin

Screening for depressive symptoms in adolescents at school: New validity evidences on the short form of the reynolds depression scale

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the depressive symptomatology and to gather new validity evidences of the Reynolds Depression Scale-Short form (RADS-SF) in a representative sample of youths. The sample consisted of 2914 adolescents with a mean age of 15.85 years (SD = 1.68). We calculated the descriptive statistics and internal consistency of the RADS-SF scores. Also, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) at the item level and successive multigroup CFAs to test measurement invariance, were conducted. Latent mean differences across gender and educational level groups were estimated, and finally, we studied the sources of validity evidences with other external variables. The level of internal consistency of the RADS-SF Total score by means of Ordinal alpha was .89. Results from CFAs showed that the one-dimensional model displayed appropriate goodness of-fit indices with CFI value over .95, and RMSEA value under .08. In addition, the results support the strong measurement invariance of the RADS-SF scores across gender and age. When latent means were compared, statistically significant differences were found by gender and age. Females scored 0.347 over than males in Depression latent variable, whereas older adolescents scored 0.111 higher than the younger group. In addition, the RADS-SF score was associated with the RADS scores. The results suggest that the RADS- SF could be used as an efficient screening test to assess self-reported depressive symptoms in adolescents from the general population. © 2017 Ortuño-Sierra et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited