Effects of water activity on the performance of potassium sorbate and natamycin as preservatives against cheese spoilage moulds

peer-reviewedThis work investigated the effects of the food preservatives potassium sorbate and natamycin, combined with different levels of ionic (sodium chloride) and non-ioinic (glycerol) water activity (aw), on growth of fungi involved in cheese spoilage. In general, the combined effect of water stress and presence of preservatives enhanced fungal inhibition. However, some doses of potassium sorbate (0.02%) and natamycin (1, 5 and 10 ppm) were able to stimulate growth of Aspergillus varians, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium chrysogenum and P. roqueforti at aw values in the range of 0.93–0.97. P. solitum was the only species whose growth was consistently reduced by any doses of preservative. The results also showed that sodium chloride and glycerol differentially affected the efficacy of preservatives. This study indicates that aw of cheese is a critical parameter to be considered in the formulation of preservative coatings used against fungal spoilage

The impact of secondary cytoreductive surgery on survival in first recurrence of platinum sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective: Analyze the effect on survival of secondary cytoreduction surgery (SCS) in treatment of first recurrence platinumsensitive epithelial ovarian cancer (REOC). Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients with first REOC who had platinum timefree interval (TFIp) > 6 months and were treated either with SCS followed by chemotherapy or chemotherapy only (CT). Clinical data such as patient’s performance status and number of sites with metastases were specifically assessed. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Results: Seventyone patients were treated either by SCS (n = 37) or CT (n = 34). Complete resection after SCS was achieved in 89% of patients. After a median followup of 51.2 months, median OS, and progressionfree survival (PFS) were 68.2 and 21.6 months, respectively, for the whole series of the SCS patients had better survival and disease progression survival than the CT only patients (HR: 0.33, 95%CI: 0.170.6; p= 0.001) and (HR: 0.28, 95%CI: 0.150.5; p= 0.001), respectively. TFIp < 12 months and multiple metastases were most important prognostic factors for risk of death (HR: 7.7 and 6.2, respectively) and recurrence (HR: 5.8 and 3.8, respectively). Probability to undergo successful SCS is related to oligometastatic disease and no residual disease after first surgery (OR: 30.0 and 5.9, respectively). Conclusions: In women with REOC oligometastatic disease and no residual disease at first surgery are associated with successful SCS. In these patients oligometastatic disease and long platinum TFI are associated with improved probability of survival

Predicting Survival after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Myelofibrosis : Performance of the Myelofibrosis Transplant Scoring System (MTSS) and Development of a New Prognostic Model

Accurate prognostic tools are crucial to assess the risk/benefit ratio of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) in patients with myelofibrosis (MF). We aimed to evaluate the performance of the Myelofibrosis Transplant Scoring System (MTSS) and identify risk factors for survival in a multicenter series of 197 patients with MF undergoing allo-HCT. After a median follow-up of 3.1 years, 47% of patients had died, and the estimated 5-year survival rate was 51%. Projected 5-year risk of nonrelapse mortality and relapse incidence was 30% and 20%, respectively. Factors independently associated with increased mortality were a hematopoietic cell transplantation-specific comorbidity index (HCT-CI) ≥3 and receiving a graft from an HLA-mismatched unrelated donor or cord blood, whereas post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PT-Cy) was associated with improved survival. Donor type was the only parameter included in the MTSS model with independent prognostic value for survival. According to the MTSS, 3-year survival was 62%, 66%, 37%, and 17% for low-, intermediate-, high-, and very high-risk groups, respectively. By pooling together the low- and intermediate-risk groups, as well as the high- and very high-risk groups, we pinpointed 2 categories: standard risk and high risk (25% of the series). Three-year survival was 62% in standard-risk and 25% in high-risk categories (P <.001). We derived a risk score based on the 3 independent risk factors for survival in our series (donor type, HCT-CI, and PT-Cy). The corresponding 5-year survival for the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk categories was 79%, 55%, and 32%, respectively (P <.001). In conclusion, the MTSS model failed to clearly delineate 4 prognostic groups in our series but may still be useful to identify a subset of patients with poor outcome. We provide a simple prognostic scoring system for risk/benefit considerations before transplantation in patients with MF

Polymorphisms in xenobiotic transporters ABCB1, ABCG2, ABCC2, ABCC1, ABCC3 and multiple myeloma risk : a case--control study in the context of the International Q1 Multiple Myeloma rESEarch consortium

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological neoplasm that arises from a single clone of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. In Europe, 4.6/100 000 males and 3.2/100 000 females every year develop MM, with a median age at diagnosis around 60 years.Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Lodz, Poland) - NN40217833Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Madrid, Spain) - PI081051Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucia (Sevilla, Spain) - P08-CVI-411

Polymorphisms in host immunity modulating genes and risk of invasive aspergillosis: results from the aspBIOmics consortium

Recent studies suggest that immune-modulating single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) influence the risk of developing cancer-related infections. Here, we evaluated whether 36 SNPs within 14 immune-related genes are associated with the risk of Invasive Aspergillosis (IA) and whether genotyping of these variants might improve disease risk prediction. We conducted a case-control association study of 781 immunocompromised patients, 149 of whom were diagnosed with IA. Association analysis showed that the IL4Rrs2107356 and IL8rs2227307 SNPs were associated with an increased risk of IA (OR=1.92, 95%CI: 1.20-3.09 and OR=1.73, 1.06-2.81) whereas the IL12Brs3212227 and IFN?rs2069705 variants were significantly associated with a decreased risk of developing the infection (OR=0.60, 0.38-0.96 and OR=0.63, 0.41-0.97). An allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT)-stratified analysis revealed that the effect observed for the IL4Rrs2107356 and IFN?rs2069705 SNPs was stronger in allo-HSCT (OR=5.63, 1.20-3.09 and OR=0.24, 0.10-0.59) than in non-HSCT patients, suggesting that the presence of these SNPs may render patients more vulnerable to infection especially under severe and prolonged immunosuppressive conditions. Importantly, in vitro studies revealed that carriers of the IFN?rs2069705C allele showed a significantly increased macrophage-mediated neutralisation of fungal conidia (P=0.0003) and, under stimulation conditions, produced higher levels of IFN? mRNA (P=0.049) and IFN? and TNFa cytokines (PLPS-96h=0.057, PPHA-96h=0.036 and PLPS+PHA-96h=0.030 and PPHA -72h=0.045, PLPS+PHA-72h=0.018, PLPS-96h=0.058 and PLPS+PHA -96h=0.0058, respectively). Finally, we also observed that the addition of SNPs significantly associated with IA to a model including clinical variables led to a substantial improvement in the discriminatory ability to predict the disease (AUC=0.659 vs. AUC=0.564, PLR=5.2•10-4 and P50.000Perm=9.34•10-5). These findings suggest that the IFN?rs2069705 SNP influences the risk of IA and that predictive models built with IFN?, IL8, IL12p70 and VEGFa variants might be used to predict disease risk and to implement risk-adapted prophylaxis or diagnostic strategies.This study was supported by grants PI12/02688 from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Madrid, Spain), PIM2010EPA-00756 from the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics (0315900A), and the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio 124 FungiNet. C.C. is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (SFRH/BPD/96176/2013). This study also was supported by a donation of Consuelo González Moreno, an acute myeloid leukemia survivor. We thank Astella Pharma Inc. for supporting this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phylogenetic analyses and toxigenic profiles of Fusarium equiseti and Fusarium acuminatum isolated from cereals from Southern Europe

Fusarium equiseti and Fusarium acuminatum are toxigenic species that contaminate cereal crops from diverse climatic regions. They are common in Spanish cereals. The information available on their phylogenetics and toxigenic profiles is, however, insufficient to assist risk evaluation. In this work, phylogenetic analyses were performed using partial sequences of the translation elongation factor gene (EF-1a) of F. equiseti and F. acuminatum strains isolated from barley and wheat from Spain and other countries. The Northern and Southern European F. equiseti strains largely separated into two phylogenetically distinct clusters. This suggests the existence of two distinct populations within this species, explaining its presence in these regions of markedly different climate. Production of type A and B trichothecenes by the Spanish strains, examined in wheat cultures using a multitoxin analytical method, indicated that F. equiseti could produce deoxynivalenol and nivalenol and other trichothecenes, at concentrations that might represent a significant risk of toxin contamination for Southern European cereals. F. acuminatum showed low intraspecific genetic variability and 58% of the strains could produce deoxynivalenol at low level. Neither species was found to produce T-2 or HT-2 toxins. The present results provide important phylogenetic and toxigenic information essential for the accurate prediction of toxigenic risk

Estimación del valor marginal del agua de riego en olivar mediante el método de la función de producción

Economic valuation of irrigation water is done through the use of production functions for the case of the olive grove. In order to do so the integration of an agronomic model (based on the production function) and an economic model linked to the profitability of the crop (the ratio of revenue and operating costs) in the area under study is proposed. The study case encompasses the Guadalbullon River Sub-basin area, belonging to the Guadalquivir River Hydrologic Demarcation (Southern Spain). Within the overall deficit of the Guadalquivir River basin, the Guadalbullon River poses a special problem as it is unregulated and there are important irrigated fields on its banks, most of them olive groves. Net marginal value of water obtained (having deducted the variable costs of production including harvesting and irrigation) is € 0.60 m-3 for the allocation of 1,000 m3 ha-1 and € 0.53 m-3 for the water right allowance of 1,500 m3 ha3 (average for period 2005/2008). The results obtained support the recommendation by other authors suggesting the use of deficit irrigation in olive, additionally the high value of water estimated contributes to explain the substantial increase in irrigated olive area in Andalucia.This research was made possible thanks to funding support of the FPI help Program of the Ministry of Science and Innovation related to the research project called «Análisis prospectivo de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agrarios nacionales en el marco de la PAC» (Ref AGL2006-05587-C04-02).Peer Reviewe

Comparative study of transvaginal ultrasonography and CA 125 in the preoperative evaluation of myometrial invasion in endometrial carcinoma

To compare the ability of transvaginal sonography and serum CA 125 levels to predict myometrial invasion in patients with endometrial carcinoma. DESIGN AND METHODS: Prospective study in 50 consecutive patients (mean age 60 years, SD 10.5, range 29-77 years) diagnosed as having endometrial cancer and scheduled for surgical staging. All patients were evaluated by transvaginal ultrasonography. Endometrial thickness was measured in all cases and myometrial invasion was estimated as or = 50%. Serum CA 125 level was determined in each patient. A cut-off level of > or = 35 IU/ml was considered to predict myometrial invasion of > or = 50%. All patients underwent surgical staging, and definitive histopathological findings regarding myometrial invasion were used as the 'gold standard'. Sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for transvaginal ultrasonography and CA 125 and compared. RESULTS: On histopathological analysis, myometrial invasion was found to be or = 50% in 15 cases (30%). Mean endometrial thickness in patients with superficial invasion was significantly lower than in those with deep invasion (13.4 mm (95% CI 11.2-15.7) vs. 18.7 mm (95% CI 15.0-22.3), respectively; p = 0.014). Median CA 125 was significantly higher in patients with deep invasion than in those with superficial invasion (30 IU/ml, interquartile range (IQR) 46.0 vs. 16.9 IU/ml, IQR 13.9, respectively; p = 0.002). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for transvaginal ultrasonography were 86.7% (95% CI 59.5-98.3), 94.3% (95% CI 80.8-99.3), 86.7% (95% CI 59.5-98.3) and 94.3% (95% CI 80.8-99.3), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for CA 125 were 40% (95% CI 16.3-67.7), 91.4% (95% CI 76.9-98.2), 66.7% (95% CI 29.9-92.5) and 78% (95% CI 63.4-89.5), respectively. The sensitivity of transvaginal ultrasonography was significantly higher than that of CA 125 (p = 0.008). No differences were found in terms of specificity, PPV or NPV. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that transvaginal ultrasonography is more sensitive than CA 125 in predicting myometrial invasion in endometrial cancer

Tejiendo lealtades en Charcas. El segundo juez de visita y composición de tierras en la trama de la dádiva virreinal, 1594-1600

The economy of favor was an essential mechanism in the construction of monarchical and colonial power, encouraging the loyalty of subjects and a more effective control of the territory. Through an analysis of the residencia of don Pedro Osores de Ulloa, this article aims to examine the role of Charcas’s second visita and land composition judge in the exercise of colonial favor. The research suggests that land and the assignment of its property, mediated by Osores de Ulloa, formed the basis of loyalty and patronage relationships that strengthened viceregal power in Charcas and articulated different layers of power.La economía de la gracia era un mecanismo esencial en la construcción del poder monárquico y virreinal, al fomentar la lealtad de los súbditos y el control efectivo del territorio. A partir de la residencia de don Pedro Osores de Ulloa, este artículo examina el rol del segundo juez de visita y composición de tierras charqueñas en el ejercicio de la dádiva virreinal. En ese sentido, se postula que la tierra y la cesión de los derechos a su propiedad, mediatizadas por Osores de Ulloa, constituyeron la base de relaciones de lealtad y patronazgo que afianzaron el dominio virreinal sobre los vecinos charqueños al tiempo que articularon las distintas esferas jurisdiccionales del poder