Biopreservation potential of Enterococcus faecalis isolated from Italian traditional raw milk cheeses

Enterococcus faecalis is frequently associated with raw milk cheeses of Mediterranean area. The genetic diversity of 38 E. faecalis obtained from raw milk products in Italy was assessed through Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA PCR (RAPD-PCR) and repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (rep-PCR). The strains were screened for their antimicrobial activity against 5 food-borne spoilage and pathogenic bacteria and 13 lactic acid bacteria (LAB), commonly used as starter cultures. Investigation was made to identify the bacteriocinogenic potential by searching for bacteriocin-encoding genes. Inhibitory effects against undesirable bacteria, including Bacillus cereus (44.7% of strains), Escherichia coli (18.4%), Listeria monocytogenes (15.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (2.6%), and Clostridium sporogenes (21.1%), were detected. Moderate antagonism towards LAB was found. One strain producing enterocin AS-48 was identified, suggesting that the antimicrobial activity of the phenotypically positive isolates should be neces..

The Three-Dimensional Shapes of Galaxy Clusters

While clusters of galaxies are considered one of the most important cosmological probes, the standard spherical modelling of the dark matter and the intracluster medium is only a rough approximation. Indeed, it is well established both theoretically and observationally that galaxy clusters are much better approximated as triaxial objects. However, investigating the asphericity of galaxy clusters is still in its infancy. We review here this topic which is currently gathering a growing interest from the cluster community. We begin by introducing the triaxial geometry. Then we discuss the topic of deprojection and demonstrate the need for combining different probes of the cluster's potential. We discuss the different works that have been addressing these issues. We present a general parametric framework intended to simultaneously fit complementary data sets (X-ray, Sunyaev Zel'dovich and lensing data). We discuss in details the case of Abell 1689 to show how different models/data sets lead to different haloe parameters. We present the results obtained from fitting a 3D NFW model to X-ray, SZ, and lensing data for 4 strong lensing clusters. We argue that a triaxial model generally allows to lower the inferred value of the concentration parameter compared to a spherical analysis. This may alleviate tensions regarding, e.g. the over-concentration problem. However, we stress that predictions from numerical simulations rely on a spherical analysis of triaxial halos. Given that triaxial analysis will have a growing importance in the observational side, we advocate the need for simulations to be analysed in the very same way, allowing reliable and meaningful comparisons. Besides, methods intended to derive the three dimensional shape of galaxy clusters should be extensively tested on simulated multi-wavelength observations.Comment: (Biased) Review paper. Comments welcome. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. This is a product of the work done by an international team at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern on "Astrophysics and Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters: the X-ray and lensing view

Digital services for an internet of places: urban digital nodes for a smart region between Milan and Turin

This paper presents the outcomes of a three-year research project developed by the Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (DAStU), in collaboration with Telecom Italia. Looking at territorial smartness from a spatial perspective, that leaves aside the purely technological aspects, the research aims at exploring different ICT potentialities: from new uses of space, to socio-economic and physical regeneration. With this goal, it reflects about the possible updating of concepts, which are widely used in urban planning: (i) from smart city to smart region, to deal with the regional scale of contemporary cities, thus including peripheral and marginal ‘in-between’ spaces; (ii) from urban nodes to urban digital nodes, to design multi-scalar smart spaces able to integrate traditional and digital services; (iii) from Internet of Things to Internet of Places, to make spaces able to interact through (at the same time) real and virtual experiences of users. These theoretical references are explored within the scenario of the metropolitan region between Milan and Turin. According to these issues, this paper presents the research process to the UDN localization along the infrastructural bundle between Milan and Turin: from the identification of urban/infrastructural nodes, to the selection of potential Urban Digital Nodes. Furthermore, it highlights the UDN contribution to a smart region development through the spatial implementation of an Internet of Places

Molecular typing of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius canine strains by three commonly used techniques

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is a newly described species of Staphylococcus regarded as the main causative agent of canine pyoderma [1]. S. pseudintermedius infection was recently described in humans. An important feature of this pathogen is the high genetic identity with two other species of staphylococci, namely S. intermedius and S. delphini, which are included all together in the Staphylococcus Intermedius Group (SIG) [2]. This scenario seriously hampers phenotypic differentiation of these three pathogens. Despite this, only in 2008 was described the first molecular protocol for diagnostic identification of   S. pseudintermedius [3]. The aim of this work was to investigate the presence of different biotypes of S. pseudintermedius obtained from clinically relevant cases of pyoderma in dogs using three molecular methods commonly used to type bacteria: the Ribosomal Spacers Amplification (RSA), the Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and the Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). A total of 46 different strains were included in this work. The application of the RSA technique, which was applied here for the first time, identified the presence of S. pseudintermedius, although it did not allow any differentiation between biotypes. The RAPD assay showed a single cluster that assembles all the interested strains that are grouped in three different sub-clusters (Fig. 1). The RFLP technique showed the most discriminative power, providing the opportunity to clearly identify this bacterium. In conclusion, the use of these three different techniques allows to clearly identify S. pseudintermedius and to observe the presence of different biotypes. In future it could be interesting to couple these results with the determination of the antibiotic resistance in order to verify if certain Multi Drug Resistant strains have particular RSA and RAPD profiles

Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Strains from Italian Dairy Products

Staphylococcus aureus is a known major cause of foodborne illnesses, and milk and dairy products are often contaminated by enterotoxigenic strains of this bacterium. In the present study, 122 S. aureus isolates collected from different dairy products were characterised by phenotypic properties, by the distribution of genes encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins (sea, sec, sed, seg, seh, sei, sej, and sel) and by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR (RAPD-PCR). Moreover, strain resistance to vancomycin and methicillin (oxacillin) was studied. The differences in the RAPD-PCR profiles obtained with the primers M13 and AP4 revealed the presence of a great genetic heterogeneity among the different S. aureus strains. Using the primer AP4 and M13, eight groups were distinguished by RAPD-PCR cluster analysis, although, except in few cases, it was not possible to correlate the isolates of different animal species (cow or ovine) with the presence of se genes. None of the isolates showed resistance to vancomycin or methicillin

Diatom communities and ecological status classification in the upper Po River basin

One of the main challenges in river management is the setting of nutrient thresholds that support good ecological status, which is the main objective to achieve for the European member states. This is a complex process, which needs an accurate analysis of the data collected so far for the ecological classification of rivers belonging to different typologies. We analysed the data of the multiannual monitoring concerning diatoms and nutrients in the upper Po River (NW Italy) with the aim of exploring the response of diatom community in terms of species composition, ecological guilds and indices. We considered data of 390 samples, of which 2/3 belonging to the “Central macrotype” (i.e. lowland stretches) and 1/3 to “Alpine siliceous”. We performed a Principal Coordinate Analysis to detect community patterns with respect to water chemical classification and macrotypes highlighting species and ecological guilds characteristic of samples along a water quality gradient. We then performed a partial RDA to focus on the role of environmental and spatial factors in shaping the diatom community in each of the two macrotypes. Finally, we investigated the concordance between the Italian normative indices ICMi (for diatoms) and LIMECO (a chemical index of water quality). We found significant differences in the diatom communities of the two macrotypes and in their response to water quality and to spatial factors. Communities resulted as much more uniform in sites with a low water quality, with characteristic species such as Navicula gregaria, Nitzschia palea and Sellaphora nigri. On the other hands, moderately disturbed sites (in terms of trophic level) were characterised by the highest guild diversity. The RDA confirmed the importance of spatial factors in shaping the diatom assemblages, especially in Alpine streams where the physical barriers may condition species dispersion. The comparison between the two normative indices highlights that the correspondence in the classification is achieved in the 57% (Alpine macrotype) and 43% (Central macrotype) of samples. According to our findings, we suggest the revision of the ICMi, both class boundaries and reference value. In addition, we recommend to lower LIMECO threshold for total phosphorus: indeed, several studies have shown significant changes in the diatom community composition starting from very low values (below the current LIMECO threshold, i.e. 50 µgL-1). Moreover, the extension of our study to the whole Po River basin will complete our knowledge of species not yet included in the diatom indices and of the community response to nutrient levels also in other macrotypes

Lactic acid bacteria with cholesterol-lowering properties for dairy applications: In vitro and in situ activity.

Cholesterol-lowering activity is one of the most promising properties of lactic acid bacteria with probiotic characteristics. In the present study, 58 potentially probiotic lactic acid bacteria were tested for their ability to survive in vitro digestion and reduce cholesterol in a medium containing cholesterol and bile acids. The best-performing strains (Lactobacillus casei VC199, Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei SE160 and VC213, Lactobacillus plantarum VS166 and VS513, Enterococcus faecium VC223, and Enterococcus lactis BT161) resulted in a 42 to 55% reduction of the cholesterol level in broth and were further tested in cheese manufacture. The cholesterol content in all the cheeses decreased with ripening. All the strains were present in the cheese at levels higher than 107 cfu/g until 60 d of ripening, the highest reductions (up to 23%) being obtained when Lb. paracasei ssp. paracasei VC213 and E. lactis BT161 were added during the cheese-making. The adjunct cultures had no negative effect on the sensory characteristics of the cheese. Thus, these strains with proven in vitro properties are good candidates for novel probiotic-containing formulations and could be used to functionalize foods such as dairy fermented products

Bone Anchored Hearing Aids for the Treatment of Asymmetric Hearing Loss

OBJECTIVES: Asymmetric hearing loss is generally defined as a moderate-to-profound hearing loss in the poorer ear and a mild-to-moderate hearing loss in the better ear. Application of a bone conduction hearing aid is one of the possible treatments for the poorer ear in asymmetric hearing loss. However, the device essentially stimulates the contralateral better ear, precluding true binaural hearing. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the application and utility of bone-anchored hearing aids in the treatment of asymmetric hearing loss. MATERIALS and METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 215 implanted subjects in our clinic and extracted a series of 27 patients affected by asymmetric hearing loss and treated with bone-anchored hearing aids. All 27 subjects had a mixed hearing loss after middle ear surgery. The preoperative and postoperative audiological data of these patients were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The audiological tests showed an improvement in the performance of hearing perception of sound and speech in quiet and noise.Moreover, the subjects have positively answered the questionnaires administered to evaluate subjective benefits. All subscales of the abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit and speech, spatial, and qualities of hearing scale showed a significant improvement with the device. CONCLUSION: Bone-anchored hearing aids are a suitable treatment for asymmetric hearing loss. When other devices cannot be utilized or are not indicated, the bone conduction devices may allow good audiological results

Innovative Non-Pharmacological Management of Delirium in Persons with Dementia: New Frontiers for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy?

Delirium; Dementia; Occupational therapyDelirio; Demencia; Terapia ocupacionalDeliri; Demència; Teràpia ocupacionalBackground: Delirium and dementia are two of the most common geriatric syndromes, which requires innovative rehabilitation approaches. Aim: We aimed at determining which occupational therapy and physiotherapy interventions are applied with older people with delirium and dementia in different care settings. We also identified the assessment tools that were used. Materials and methods: We conducted a literature search for scientific articles published from 2012 to 2022 (PubMed, MEDLINE, AMED and CINAHL) with adults aged >65 years including experimental study designs with randomized or non-randomized intervention, exploratory studies, pilot studies, quasi-experimental studies, case series and/or clinical cases. Studies that did not use interventions that could be classified as occupational therapy or physiotherapy were excluded. Results: After applying the exclusion criteria, 9 articles were selected. The most widely used assessment to define dementia was the MMSE (N = 5; 55.5%), whereas the CAM (N = 2; 22.2%), CAM-ICU (N = 2; 22.2%) and RASS (N = 3; 33.3%) were the most widely used to define delirium. The rehabilitation interventions that were most frequently performed were early mobilization, inclusion of the caregiver during treatment, modification of the environment to encourage orientation and autonomy, the interprofessional systemic approach and engaging persons in meaningful activities. Conclusions: Despite the growing evidence on its effectiveness, the role of physiotherapy and occupational therapy interventions in the prevention and treatment of people with dementia and delirium is still emerging. More research is needed to investigate if effective occupational therapy programs known to reduce the behavioral and psychological symptoms in people with dementia are also useful for treating delirium and specifically delirium superimposed on dementia. Regarding physiotherapy, it is crucial to know about the amount and timing of intervention required. Further studies are needed including older adults with delirium superimposed on dementia to define the role of the interprofessional geriatric rehabilitation team