Variability of RNA quality extracted from biofilms of foodborne pathogens using different kits impacts mRNA quantification by qPCR

The biofilm formation by foodborne pathogens is known to increase the problem related with surface disinfection procedure in the food processing environment and consequent transmission of these pathogens into the population. Messenger RNA has been increasingly used to understand the action and the consequences of disinfectants in the virulence on such biofilms. RNA quality is an important requirement for any RNA-based analysis since the quality can impair the mRNA quantification. Therefore, we evaluated five different RNA extraction kits using biofilms of the foodborne pathogens Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella enterica. The five kits yielded RNA with different quantities and qualities. While for E. coli the variability of RNA quality did not affect the quantification of mRNA, the same was not true for L. monocytogenes or S. enterica. Therefore, our results indicate that not all kits are suitable for RNA extraction from bacterial biofilms, and thus, the selection of RNA extraction kit is crucial to obtain accurate and meaningful mRNA quantification.AF and JCB acknowledge the financial support of individual grants SFRH/BD/62359/2009 and SFRH/BD/66250/2009, respectively. The authors acknowledge the gift of bacterial strains to Joana Azeredo and Maria Olivia Pereira.

Cross-sectional evaluation of the periapical status as related to quality of root canal fillings and coronal restorations in a rural adult male population of Turkey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To determine the prevalence of periapical lesions in root canal-treated teeth in a rural, male adult, Turkish population and to investigate the influence of the quality of root canal fillings on prevalence of periapical lesions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample for this cross-sectional study consisted of 552 adult male patients, 18-32 years of age, presenting consecutively as new patients seeking routine dental care at the Dental Sciences of Gulhane Military Medicine, Ankara. The radiographs of the 1014 root canal-treated teeth were evaluated. The teeth were grouped according to the radiographic quality of the root canal filling and the coronal restoration. The criteria used for the examination were slightly modified from those described by De Moor. Periapical status was assessed by the Periapical Index scores (PAI) proposed by Orstavik.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall success rate of root canal treatment was 32.1%. The success rates of adequately root canal treatment were significantly higher than inadequately root canal treatment, regardless of the quality or presence of the coronal restoration (P < .001). In addition, the success rate of inadequate root canal treatment was also significantly affected by the quality of coronal restorations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results revealed a high prevalence of periapical lesions in root canal treatment, which is comparable to that reported in other methodologically compatible studies from diverse geographical locations. In addition, the results from the present study confirm the findings of other studies that found the quality of the root canal treatment to be a key factor for prognosis with or without adequate coronal restoration.</p

Habilidades em consciência silábica e fonêmica de crianças com fala desviante com e sem intervenção fonoaudiológica Syllabic and phonemic awareness abilities in children with speech disorder with and without speech therapy intervention

OBJETIVO: Comparar o desempenho de crianças com desvio fonológico evolutivo (DFE) que receberam intervenção fonoaudiológica com enfoque fonológico e de crianças com DFE que não receberam esta em habilidades de consciência fonológica (CF). MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados 23 sujeitos com diagnóstico de DFE, sendo que 14 crianças fizeram parte do Grupo de Estudo 1 (GE1), que recebeu terapia fonoaudiológica, e as outras nove fizeram parte do Grupo de Estudo 2 (GE2), que ainda não havia recebido fonoterapia. Todos os sujeitos foram submetidos à avaliação fonoaudiológica e da consciência fonológica. RESULTADOS: Das 26 sub-tarefas de CF aplicadas nos grupos de estudo, houve diferença estatisticamente significativa somente na tarefa T7-dissílabas (reversão silábica), confirmando o pior desempenho do GE2 (p<0,05). Porém, na análise das médias houve tendência a um melhor desempenho do GE1 em comparação ao GE2. Apesar desses resultados, mesmo os sujeitos que receberam intervenção fonoaudiológica tiveram desempenhos muito baixos. CONCLUSÕES: Houve diferença estatisticamente significante somente na sub-tarefa T7-dissílabas (reversão silábica) entre crianças com DFE que receberam intervenção fonoaudiológica e crianças com DFE que não receberam fonoterapia. Porém, notou-se uma tendência do grupo que recebeu terapia de ter um melhor desempenho nas tarefas de CF do que o grupo que não recebeu.<br>PURPOSE: To compare the performances of children with evolutive phonological disorder (EPD) that had phonologically-focused speech therapy and children with EPD who did not undergo therapy in phonological awareness (PA) abilities. METHODS: Twenty three subjects with EPD diagnosis were evaluated. The 14 children that composed Study Group 1 (SG1) received speech therapy, while the other nine who were part of Study Group 2 (SG2) had not yet received speech therapy. All subjects underwent speech and language pathology evaluation and PA assessment. RESULTS: From the 26 sub-tasks of PA applied, only one showed statistically significant difference, confirming worse performance of the SG2 (p<0.05). However, analysis of the means showed that SG1 tended to present a better performance overall than SG2. Despite these results, even subjects who received speech therapy intervention presented low performances on the tasks. CONCLUSION: Statistically significant difference was observed only in the sub-test T7-two syllables (syllabic reversion) among children with EPD who received speech intervention and children with EPD without speech therapy. However, the group who did attend speech therapy showed a tendency to achieve better performance in the PA tasks

Cruise ships like buildings:Wayfinding solutions to improve emergency evacuation

This research aims at demonstrating that wayfinding solutions can improve the effectiveness of the evacuation processes in complex architectural spaces such as those of cruise ships. We investigated the behaviours of passengers in maritime disaster to figure out whether people act similarly during buildings egress and ships evacuation. Data were collected through questionnaires administered in 2015 to passengers boarding various cruise ships at the port of Ancona (Italy), and through the analysis of real footage of the evacuation of the Costa Concordia. The open source software Fire Dynamics Simulator with Evacuation (FDS+EVAC), used in building egress analyses, was adapted to include these behavioural and event information such as familiarity with ship layout, ship rotation and lifeboats boarding. Simulation results on the case study confirmed similarities between ships and buildings evacuations, underlining the effectiveness of wayfinding solutions to improve passengers’ evacuation flows and routes selection. This study also demonstrated that computer simulation could benefit the ship design process, the preparation of safety guidelines, and the crewmembers during naval emergency management training