Antimicrobial activity of Thymbra capitata and its major components agasint Gardnerella spp.

[Excerpt] Introduction: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal disorder that affects women in reproductive age. This condition is characterized by a shift in the vaginal microflora from the dominant beneficial Lactobacillus to an overgrowth of strictly and anaerobic bacteria. It is noteworthy that BV involves the presence of multispecies biofilm, mainly composed by Gardnerella spp.. A major issue related to BV is the recurrent failure of conventionally antibiotic therapies. Therefore, essential oils (EOs) have been considered as a possible treatment option. Thymbra capitata EO has already demonstrated a good potential to eradicate bacteria. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Defining a roadmap for harmonizing quality indicators in Laboratory Medicine: A consensus statement on behalf of the IFCC Working Group "laboratory Error and Patient Safety" and EFLM Task and Finish Group "performance specifications for the extra-analytical phases"

The improving quality of laboratory testing requires a deep understanding of the many vulnerable steps involved in the total examination process (TEP), along with the identification of a hierarchy of risks and challenges that need to be addressed. From this perspective, the Working Group \u201cLaboratory Errors and Patient Safety\u201d (WG-LEPS) of International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) is focusing its activity on implementation of an efficient tool for obtaining meaningful information on the risk of errors developing throughout the TEP, and for establishing reliable information about error frequencies and their distribution. More recently, the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) has created the Task and Finish Group \u201cPerformance specifications for the extraanalytical phases\u201d (TFG-PSEP) for defining performance specifications for extra-analytical phases. Both the IFCC and EFLM groups are working to provide laboratories with a system to evaluate their performances and recognize the critical aspects where improvement actions are needed. A Consensus Conference was organized in Padova, Italy, in 2016 in order to bring together all the experts and interested parties to achieve a consensus for effective harmonization of quality indicators (QIs). A general agreement was achieved and the main outcomes have been the release of a new version of model of quality indicators (MQI), the approval of a criterion for establishing performance specifications and the definition of the type of information that should be provided within the report to the clinical laboratories participating to the QIs project

Printers are dangerous

Proceeding of: IEEE 35th International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology, London , UK, 16 - 19 october 2001In the last years, many new intelligent full-featured peripherals that assist information systems have appeared. Those peripherals, such as printers, copiers, PDA organizers, Web cameras, etc. usually have a very friendly way of configuration and management (via http, ftp or telnet servers) and offer more networked services everyday. Their computation, memory and networking capabilities have also increased in the last years. Nowadays, many of them are comparable to workstations and run complete operating systems such as Linux or Solaris. All those factors imply that these devices could represent a real threat to the security of information systems. This problem is even worse because most of those peripherals have been considered inoffensive and not many administrators are aware of their security risks. The most representative example is printers, which have been traditionally considered totally harmless devices. At the present time, that idea is difficult to defend because many security incidents related with networked printers have arisen in the last years. System and security administrators have traditionally focused their efforts in fortifying servers and hosts only, but it seems that this view is not enough for assuring security nowadays.Publicad

Solid-state fermentation of winery and olive mill wastes for lignocellulolytic enzymes and antioxidant compounds production

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is a process that can use agroin-dustry solid residues as substrate for microbial growth. During SSF, value-added products and fermented biomass are generated con-tributing for the reutilization of otherwise pollutant agroindustry wastes. By SSF, fungi can hydrolyze anti-nutritional factors of plant-based residues, as the lignocellulosic matrix, and produce enzymes, phenolic compounds and other bioactive compounds, making this a high interest bioprocess for the aquafeed industry. The present study optimized (simplex centroid design) the mixture of winery and olive mill wastes to produce lignocellulolytic enzymes and to extract phenolic compounds through SSF by Aspergillus niger. The substrate mixture that maximized the production of lignocellu-lolytic enzymes, antioxidant and phenolic compounds was 0.44 g exhausted olive pomace/gds; 0.3 g exhausted grape marc/gds; 0.15 g vine-shoot trimmings and 0.1 g crude olive pomace/gds. The crude extract will be applied as additive in meagre (Argyrosomus regius) diets, to improve the feed utilization efciency of low-sh meal-based diets, contributing to the sustainability of aquafeeds.Funded by Programa Operacional Mar2020, Portugal 2020 under the project InovFeed (ref.MAR-02.01.01-FEAMP-0111) and BioTec Norte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by ERDF under the scope of Norte 2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Direct Visualization of Mechanical Beats by Means of an Oscillating Smartphone

[EN] The resonance phenomenon is widely known in physics courses.1 Qualitatively speaking, resonance takes place in a driven oscillating system whenever the frequency approaches the natural frequency, resulting in maximal oscillatory amplitude. Very closely related to resonance is the phenomenon of mechanical beating, which occurs when the driving and natural frequencies of the system are slightly different. The frequency of the beat is just the difference of the natural and driving frequencies. Beats are very familiar in acoustic systems. There are several works in this journal on visualizing the beats in acoustic systems.2¿4 For instance, the microphone and the speaker of two mobile devices were used in previous work2 to analyze the acoustic beats produced by two signals of close frequencies. The formation of beats can also be visualized in mechanical systems, such as a mass-spring system5 or a double-driven string.6 Here, the mechanical beats in a smartphone-spring system are directly visualized in a simple way. The frequency of the beats is measured by means of the acceleration sensor of a smartphone, which hangs from a spring attached to a mechanical driver. This laboratory experiment is suitable for both high school and first-year university physics courses.The authors would like to thank the Institute of Educational Sciences of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) for the support of the Teaching Innovation Groups MoMa and e-MACAFI and for the financial support through the Project PIME 2015 B18.Giménez Valentín, MH.; Salinas Marín, I.; Monsoriu Serra, JA.; Castro-Palacio, JC. (2017). Direct Visualization of Mechanical Beats by Means of an Oscillating Smartphone. The Physics Teacher. 55(7):424-425. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5003745S42442555

Maternal depression and offspring mental health at age 5: MINA-Brazil cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To identify longitudinal patterns of maternal depression between three months and five years after child’s birth, to examine predictor variables for these trajectories, and to evaluate whether distinct depression trajectories predict offspring mental health problems at age 5 years. METHODS: We used data from the Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition in Acre (MINA-Brazil) study, a population-based birth cohort in the Western Brazilian Amazon. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at 3 and 6–8 months, and 1 and 2 years after delivery. Mental health problems in 5-year-old children were evaluated with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) reported by parents. Trajectories of maternal depression were calculated using a group-based modelling approach. RESULTS: We identified four trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms: “low” (67.1%), “increasing” (11.5%), “decreasing” (17.4%), and “high-chronic” (4.0%). Women in the “high/ chronic” trajectory were the poorest, least educated, and oldest compared with women in the other trajectory groups. Also, they were more frequently multiparous and reported smoking and having attended fewer prenatal consultations during pregnancy. In the adjusted analyses, the odds ratio of any SDQ disorder was 3.23 (95%CI: 2.00–5.22) and 2.87 (95%CI: 1.09–7.57) times higher among children of mothers belonging to the “increasing” and “high-chronic” trajectory groups, respectively, compared with those of mothers in the “low” depressive symptoms group. These differences were not explained by maternal and child characteristics included in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS: We identified poorer mental health outcomes for children of mothers assigned to the “chronic/severe” and “increasing” depressive symptoms trajectories. Prevention and treatment initiatives to avoid the adverse short, medium, and long-term effects of maternal depression on offspring development should focus on women belonging to these groups

THE NEW CAP POLICY OF SUBSIDIES AND THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS OF THE ALENTEJO REGION

The implementation of CAP Reform introduces a new way of thinking the choices of the agricultural production systems. According to studies for the Alentejo region, CAP subsidies represent about 50% of the farmers’ total income. The objectives of this paper are to analyze the effects on the traditional agricultural systems of the CAP Reform and of several possible scenarios of agricultural policy after the potential planning horizon of the CAP Reform

Methionine adenosyltransferase S-nitrosylation is regulated by the basic and acidic amino acids surrounding the target thiol

S-Adenosylmethionine serves as the methyl donor for many biological methylation reactions and provides the propylamine group for the synthesis of polyamines. S-Adenosylmethionine is synthesized from methionine and ATP by the enzyme methionine adenosyltransferase. The cellular factors regulating S-adenosylmethionine synthesis have not been well defined. Here we show that in rat hepatocytes S-nitrosoglutathione monoethyl ester, a cell-permeable nitric oxide donor, markedly reduces cellular S-adenosylmethionine content via inactivation of methionine adenosyltransferase by S-nitrosylation. Removal of the nitric oxide donor from the incubation medium leads to the denitrosylation and reactivation of methionine adenosyltransferase and to the rapid recovery of cellular S-adenosylmethionine levels. Nitric oxide inactivates methionine adenosyltransferase via S-nitrosylation of cysteine 121. Replacement of the acidic (aspartate 355) or basic (arginine 357 and arginine 363) amino acids located in the vicinity of cysteine 121 by serine leads to a marked reduction in the ability of nitric oxide to S-nitrosylate and inactivate hepatic methionine adenosyltransferase. These results indicate that protein S-nitrosylation is regulated by the basic and acidic amino acids surrounding the target cysteine

New cytotoxic neolignans from the cobalt crust fungus

Terana coerulea (Phanerochaetaceae family) is known as the cobalt crust fungus and it is used for its antibiotic properties at the Irati’s Forest (Navarra, Spain). Previous mycochemical investigations reported the isolation of corticins A-C,[1] p-terphenyl neolignans related to the antitumoural telephoric acid.[2] In this job, from powdered dry fungi, six extracts of increasing polarity were obtained and tested for cytotoxicity against four human tumour cell lines and one non-tumour primary cell culture with the sulforhodamine B assay. From the most cytotoxic one, the EtOAc extract, we isolated and identified three p-terphenyl neolignans. One of them was previously described as corticin A by Briggs et al.,[1] whose earlier structure has been revised in this work using one- and two-dimensional NMR, HRMS, positive and negative MS/MS and its peracetyl derivative in comparison with 4’’-deoxy and 4,5-dimethoxy candidusines A.[3] The other two neolignans are new natural products, named corticins D and E. These neolignans were less cytotoxic than the EtOAc extract itself, maybe due to an aerial oxidation and degradation produced when these neolignans, with catechol moieties, are definitively purified.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio