Widespread occurrence of non-phosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase among gram-positive bacteria

The non-phosphorylating glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDHN, NADP+-specific, EC 1.2.1.9) is present in green eukaryotes and some Streptococcus strains. The present report describes the results of activity and immunoblot analyses, which were used to generate the first survey of bacterial GAPDHN distribution in a number of Bacillus, Streptococcus and Clostridium strains. Putative gapN genes were identified after PCR amplification of partial 700-bp sequences using degenerate primers constructed from highly conserved protein regions. Alignment of the amino acid sequences of these fragments with those of known sequences from other eukaryotic and prokaryotic GAPDHNs, demonstrated the presence of conserved residues involved in catalytic activity that are not conserved in aldehyde dehydrogenases, a protein family closely linked to GAPDHNs. The results confirm that the basic structural features of the members of the GAPDHN family have been conserved throughout evolution and that no identity exists with phosphorylating GAPDHs. Furthermore, phylogenetic trees generated from multiple sequence alignments suggested a close relationship between plant and bacterial GAPDHN families. [Int Microbiol 2005; 8(4):251-258

Benjamin Hoffmann, Les Paradoxes de la postérité

Pourquoi écrit-on ? C’est la question que pose le livre de Benjamin Hoffmann intitulé Les Paradoxes de la postérité, publié en janvier 2019. L’ouvrage invite à trouver une réponse nouvelle à cette question. « Etre écrivain, si l’on vous écoute, c’est travailler des mois durant à la rédaction d’un livre qui ne touchera probablement qu’une poignée de lecteurs » (p. 229). C’est une activité étrange. Le fait d’écrire, c’est une volonté d’exister pour la postérité, un refus de disparaître entièrem..

Determination of carbendazim residues in Moroccan tomato samples using local enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and comparison with liquid chromatography

The fungicide carbendazim (CBZ) is not approved for agricultural uses in some countries but is still used by many farmers due to its effectiveness. For this reason, in previous work of the same authors, they developed a competitive enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) using rabbit polyclonal antibodies to detect CBZ. This study aimed to validate this in-house ELISA after extraction with methanol for CBZ analysis in tomato samples, and the results were compared with the conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method after QuEChERS extraction. The results showed that both ELISA and HPLC methods have good repeatability, reproducibility and high precision with a good variation verified by principal components analysis (PCA). ANOVA tested the detection limit (LOD), and quantification limit (LOQ), and the values for ELISA (LOD = 0.026± 0.001 µg/L and LOQ = 0.083 ± 0.003 µg/L) were significantly lower than those obtained by HPLC (LOD = 0.61 ± 0.02 µg/L and LOQ = 1.85 ± 0.07 µg/L). ELISA and HPLC were used for analyzing CBZ in 100 Moroccan tomato samples. These two methods detected the presence of CBZ above the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) level in 9 samples. However, the presence of the  CBZ was detected in the 79 samples by ELISA and quantified in 66 samples. In contrast, the presence of CBZ was detected in 57 and quantified in 35 samples by HPLC. These results showed that the ELISA system coupled with a simple methanol extraction is much more sensitive than HPLC after QuEChERS extraction

El Capital Intelectual y su Incidencia en la Producción de las Empresas Productoras de Banano en la Costa sur del Ecuador

El presente trabajo de investigación se lo realizó por el entorno extremadamente competitivo en el área agrícola exigiendo a las empresas productoras de banano un esfuerzo constante en la mejora de sus procesos de producción, comercialización, gestión y dirección económica con un capital de talento humano calificado en el área de siembra y administración de las fincas. De esta manera los pequeños productores de banano tradicional se han visto obligados a depender cada vez más de la información técnica en el área agrícola, administrativa financiera proporcionada por un capital intelectual humano de alto nivel que toma como base objetiva ejercer una función vital: la toma de decisiones, donde se aprecia que las agrícolas de economía familiar carecen de un capital intelectual idóneo para ejercer esta función, a diferencia de las fincas asociadas que su visión está orientando para insertarse y permanecer en el mercado bananero con productos de calidad, con volúmenes y periodicidad demandada, que permitan el desarrollo sostenible de la organización, en el mercado interno como internacional, dando prioridad en los estándar de calidad en la fruta de exportación.   This paper was carried out due to the extremely competitive environment in the agricultural area. This requires the banana-producing companies to make a constant effort to improve their production, marketing, management, and economic management processes with a capital of qualified human talent in the area of sowing and administration of the farms. Through this way, small traditional banana producers have been forced to rely more and more on technical information in the agricultural, administrative, and financial area provided by a high-level human intellectual capital. This gave rise to the objective of performing a vital function, which is decision-making. Here, it can be seen that family farmers lack the ideal intellectual capital to exercise this function. This is unlike the associated farms where their vision is guiding to insert and remain in the banana market with quality products, with volumes and demanded periodicity. This has also led to the sustainable development of the organization, in the domestic and international markets, by giving priority to quality standards in export fruit

Correlation between circulating cortisol and indicators of stress and oxidant stress during the preslaughter operations in camels

In livestock, pre-slaughter stress begins at the farm or market, continues during transport and upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, ending at slaughter. In this investigation, a survey was conducted in the slaughterhouse of Casablanca in Morocco to record the duration of the preslaughter operations and the frequency of urination in camels. Two groups of camels were constituted, the least stressed animals (Group I, n= 12) and the most stressed animals (Group II, n= 12). Group I animals had a waiting time before loading ≤ 24 h, a loading time ≤ 15 min, an unloading time ≤ 5 min, a water and food deprivation time before slaughter ≤ 24 h, a duration of accompaniment to the slaughter room ≤ 11 min and a frequency of urination during this accompaniment < 3 times. Those in group II had higher duration and frequency values for the same parameters. In addition, serum stress [cortisol (COR)], oxidant stress biomarkers [malondialdehyde (MDA)] and activities of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were analyzed in both groups, and correlations between these biomarkers and the durations of various preslaughter operations and the frequency of urination were established. The most stressed camels (G II) showed high serum concentrations of COR and MDA, and low CAT and SOD activities by comparison to the less stressed camels (G I) (P<0.05). Significant correlations were recorded between COR, MDA, CAT and SOD, and the durations of various preslaughter operations, and between COR and the frequency of urination

Responsabilidad social empresarial y calidad de vida en empresas bananeras de Machala, Ecuador

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar el contexto en el cual se desarrolla la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial y calidad de vida en empresas bananeras de Machala en Ecuador. Se realizó a través del tipo de investigación descriptiva por medio de la hermenéutica para realizar discusiones y contrastaciones teóricas entre los diferentes autores de los documentos revisados. Entre las consideraciones finales se destacan las siguientes: la RSE es un camino estratégico para valorizar la empresa y organizar una nueva estrategia de negocios, comprometida con el desarrollo sostenible y no solo con maximizar beneficios,  que incluye a todas las partes interesadas (stakeholders: trabajadores, clientes, proveedores, ambiente, comunidad y toda la sociedad) con criterio ético y transparente en los negocios; este concepto permite establecer la inserción del  sector empresarial bananero de la Provincia de la ciudad de Machala. La información obtenida revela que estas empresas constituyen un sector económico fuerte, de amplias ganancias y sólidamente estructurado, por lo tanto, la RSE no puede estar fuera de su mira estratégica, tanto como industria bandera de Ecuador, como en relación con su colaboración con la sostenibilidad y el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de los ecuatorianos

Potential effect of fruit and flower extracts of Arbutus unedo L. on Tetrahymena pyriformis exposed to a cobalt-60 source

Exposure of Tetrahymena pyriformis cultures to cobalt-60 for 72 h significantly impacted the cells' growth, appearance, and physiology. This study aims to investigate the protective effects of Arbutus unedo L flowers and fruit extracts on T. pyriformis against gamma radiation. Initially, aqueous and 50% ethanolic extracts of the fruits and flowers were prepared, and their cytotoxicity on the ciliate was evaluated. The irradiated ciliate's cellular viability and morphological aspect improved when a non-toxic concentration of 25 µg/mL was added to the growth medium. The addition of extracts restored glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and succinate dehydrogenase activities to their initial levels, similar to non-irradiated cells. In addition, the extracts reduced oxidative stress markers, such as lipid peroxidation, and decreased the activities of antioxidant defence enzymes, catalase, and superoxide dismutase. This may be attributed to the antioxidant properties of the extracts. Results of this study revealed that the flower extracts exhibited better protective effects than the fruit extracts, with superior antioxidant activity in the in-vitro DPPH scavenging assay. These results suggest that A. unedo flower extracts may have potential as exogenous radioprotective agents

Impacto en la actitud emprendedora de estudiantes al participar en la asignatura de Emprendimiento.

En el presente trabajo se usó la estadística descriptiva para analizar las variables que intervienen en la actitud emprendedora de estudiantes de carreras administrativas de la Universidad Técnica de Machala, que fue considerada como caso de estudio. El objetivo fue analizar los cambios en la actitud emprendedora antes y después de cursar la asignatura de emprendimiento. Los resultados fueron positivos, debido a que cada una de las variables consideradas para la actitud emprendedora, en este caso valoración del resultado, autoconfianza, capital social que tiende puentes, e intención de emprender, incrementaron su valoración en aquellos que han cursado la asignatura, lo que da información relevante para la búsqueda de mejoras en dicha asignatura, y directamente contribuir al desarrollo social y económico del país.