Why bean beer?

Beer can be a wholesome beverage, and the art of brewing beer has been intertwined with the development of civilised society for centuries. Today, the latest valuation of the economic value of beer (by accountants Ernst and Young in 2013), reported that Europe is the world’s biggest producer of beer with over 4,500 breweries delivering around 390 million hectolitres annually – which in plain English is 68,632,200,000 pints (since 1 hectolitre is a small spillage less than 176 imperial pints). The industry employs over 2 million people, and around 125,000 of these are employed in breweries themselves. It should also be no surprise then that sales generated 53 billion Euro, which is almost doubled again by the value added from the supply chain. Also, the EU brewing sector had a trade surplus (i.e. exports were greater than imports) to the value of 3 billion Euro in 2012. Beer is serious business

HIV-associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Current perspectives

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, caused by the polyomavirus JC and occurring almost exclusively in the context of severe immune depression. AIDS represents the most common predisposing condition for PML development. Antiretroviral treatment has reduced PML incidence in HIV-infected subjects, but the disease remains a severe and life-threatening complication of AIDS, considering thus far the lack of an effective anti-JC virus (JCV) direct-acting antiviral drug. In the last decade, the use of monoclonal antibodies for treating immune-based diseases evidenced new predisposing conditions for PML development, promoting a renewed interest in PML pathogenesis. In this article, we review the current knowledge on JCV epidemiology and AIDS-associated PML incidence, JCV viral cycle, pathogenesis, and the interplay with HIV infection. We give an updated overview of diagnostic and prognostic tools available for PML diagnosis and describe past and current therapeutic approaches, including new strategies for PML cure

Iridocorneal endothelial syndrome in a patient with keratoconus. A case report

Background: To describe a case of a rare association of bilateral keratoconus and unilateral essential iris atrophy and to conduct a literature review of the current strategies of treatment of the corneal disease and glaucoma in patients with Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome (ICE). Case presentation: We report a rare association of bilateral keratoconus and unilateral essential iris atrophy in a 38-year-old man. Diagnosis of bilateral keratoconus was confirmed by corneal topography. Slit-lamp examination showed extensive iris atrophy with corectopia and policoria in one eye. Corneal specular microscopy revealed an abnormal endothelium morphology in the same eye with extensive peripheral anterior synechiae and closure of the drainage angle at gonioscopy. Intraocular pressure was 26 mmHg, despite maximal topical therapy. Optic disc examination showed severe glaucomatous cupping. Surgery by glaucoma drainage device implantation was performed. Conclusion: Essential iris atrophy is a rare clinical variant of ICE syndrome characterized by profound anatomical alterations of the anterior segment associated with corneal edema and secondary glaucoma. In these patients, selective keratoplasties have replaced penetrating keratoplasty to treat corneal decompensation and glaucoma drainage devices are preferred to conventional trabeculectomy for the treatment of secondary glaucoma

Maximal Lactate Steady State Versus the 20-Minute Functional Threshold Power Test in Well-Trained Individuals: “Watts” the Big Deal?

Purpose: This study aimed to i) compare the power output (PO) for both the 20-minute functional threshold power (FTP20) field-test and the calculated 95% (FTP95%) with power at maximal lactate steady state (MLSS); and ii) evaluate the sensitivity of FTP95% and MLSS to training induced changes. Methods: Eighteen participants (12 males- 37± 6 years; 6 females- 28 ± 6 years) performed a ramp-incremental cycling test to exhaustion, 2 to 3 constant load MLSS trials, and a FTP20 test. 10 participants returned to repeat the test series after 7-months of training. Results: PO at FTP20 and FTP95% was greater than that at MLSS (p=0.00), with the PO at MLSS representing 88.5 ± 4.8% and 93.1 ± 5.1% of FTP and FTP95%, respectively. MLSS was greater POST compared to PRE training (12 ± 8 W) (p=0.002). No increase was seen in mean PO at FTP20 and FTP95% (p=0.75). Conclusion: The results indicate that the PO at FTP95% is different to MLSS, and that changes in MLSS PO after training were not reflected by FTP95%. Even using an adjusted percentage (i.e., 88% rather than 95% of FTP20), the large variability in the data is such that it would not be advisable to use this as a representation of MLSS

Endothelial keratoplasty combined with scleral fixation intraocular lens

describe, for the first time, the surgical management of two aphakic patients with corneal decompensation treated with concomitant ultrathin-Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (UT-DSAEK) and implantation of two different scleral-fixated (SF) intraocular lenses (IOLs), namely sutureless SF (SSF) Carlevale IOL (Soleko, Italy; Figure 1) or Morcher Type 90L IOL (Morcher GmbH, Germany; Figure 2). Both IOLs are hydrophilic acrylic. The Carlevale IOL is 13.2 mm long with a 6.5 mm optic plate, foldable and injectable through a 2.2 mm corneal tunnel. A T-shaped harpoon protrudes off the closed haptics and is designed to be externalized underneath a partial thickness scleral flap (Figure 1). The Morcher Type 90L IOL is 15 mm long with a 6.5 mm optic plate. The two C-loop haptics have an eyelet for the passage of the sutures for the scleral fixatio

Just the tonic! Legume biorefining for alcohol has the potential to reduce Europe’s protein deficit and mitigate climate change

Industrialised agriculture is heavily reliant upon synthetic nitrogen fertilisers and imported protein feeds, posing environmental and food security challenges. Increasing the cultivation of leguminous crops that biologically fix nitrogen and provide high protein feed and food could help to address these challenges. We report on the innovative use of an important leguminous crop, pea (Pisum sativum L.), as a source of starch for alcohol (gin) production, yielding protein-rich animal feed as a co-product. We undertook life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental footprint of 1 L of packaged gin produced from either 1.43 kg of wheat grain or 2.42 kg of peas via fermentation and distillation into neutral spirit. Allocated environmental footprints for pea-gin were smaller than for wheat-gin across 12 of 14 environmental impact categories considered. Global warming, resource depletion, human toxicity, acidification and terrestrial eutrophication footprints were, respectively, 12%, 15%, 15%, 48% and 68% smaller, but direct land occupation was 112% greater, for pea-gin versus wheat-gin. Expansion of LCA boundaries indicated that co-products arising from the production of 1 L of wheat- or pea-gin could substitute up to 0.33 or 0.66 kg soybean animal feed, respectively, mitigating considerable greenhouse gas emissions associated with land clearing, cultivation, processing and transport of such feed. For pea-gin, this mitigation effect exceeds emissions from gin production and packaging, so that each L of bottled pea gin avoids 2.2 kg CO2 eq. There is great potential to scale the use of legume starches in production of alcoholic beverages and biofuels, reducing dependence on Latin American soybean associated with deforestation and offering considerable global mitigation potential in terms of climate change and nutrient leakage — estimated at circa 439 Tg CO2 eq. and 8.45 Tg N eq. annually

Data for life cycle assessment of legume biorefining for alcohol

Benchmarking the environmental sustainability of alcohol produced from legume starch against alcohol produced from cereal grains requires considering of crop production, nutrient cycling and use of protein-rich co-products via life cycle assessment. This article describes the mass balance flows behind the life cycle inventories for gin produced from wheat and peas (Pisum sativum L.) in an associated article summarising the environmental footprints of wheat- and pea-gin [1], and also presents detailed supplementary results. Activity data were collected from interviews with actors along the entire gin value chain including a distillery manager and ingredient and packaging suppliers. Important fertiliserand animal-feed substitution effects of co-product use were derived using detailed information and models on nutrient flows and animal feed composition, along with linear optimisation modelling. Secondary data on environmental burdens of specific materials and processes were obtained from the Ecoinvent v3.4 life cycle assessment database. This article provides a basis for further quantitative evaluation of the environmental sustainability of legume-alcohol value chains

Reactivation of hepatitis B virus with immune-escape mutations after ocrelizumab treatment for multiple sclerosis

Ocrelizumab is an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) that is closely related to rituximab. We describe a case of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in an MS patient with resolved HBV infection receiving ocrelizumab. HBV reactivation was monitored with HBV-DNA and HBV surface antigen periodic assessment. Anti-HBV treatment with entecavir was started after HBV-DNA detection. Ocrelizumab can reactivate viral replication in patients with resolved HBV infection. HBV reactivation monitoring seems an effective and safe option for the management of these patients. More studies are needed to assess the optimal management of HBV reactivation in MS patients on ocrelizumab treatment

Low testosterone levels and high estradiol to testosterone ratio are associated with hyperinflammatory state and mortality in hospitalized men with COVID-19

Evidence supports a sex disparity in clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients, with men exhibiting higher mortality rates compared to women. We aimed to test the correlation between serum levels of sex hormones [total testosterone, estradiol (E2), estradiol to testosterone (E2/T) ratio, progesterone), prolactin and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and markers of inflammation, coagulation and sepsis at admission in hospitalized men with COVID-19