Secondary Metabolite Profile, Antioxidant Capacity, and Mosquito Repellent Activity of Bixa orellana from Brazilian Amazon Region

The Brazilian flora was widely used as source of food and natural remedies to treat various diseases. Bixa orellana L. (Bixaceae), also known as annatto, uruc\uf9, or achiote, is a symbol for the Amazonian tribes that traditionally use its seeds as coloured ink to paint their bodies for religious ceremonies. The aim of this study was to investigate the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile of B. orellana fresh fruits (in vivo sampled), dried seeds, wood, bark, and leaves analyzed with Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. A screening on phenolic content (the Folin-Ciocalteu assay) and antiradical activity (DPPH assay) of seeds was also conducted. In addition, the repellent properties of seed extracts against Aedes aegypti L. were investigated. Volatile compounds detected in B. orellana samples consisted mainly of sesquiterpenes, monoterpenes, and arenes: \u3b1-humulene is the major volatile compound present in seed extracts followed by D-germacrene, \u3b3-elemene, and caryophyllene. B. orellana proved to be a good source of antioxidants. Preliminary data on repellency against A. aegypti of three different dried seed extracts (hexane, ethanol, and ethanol/water) indicated a significant skin protection activity. A protection of 90% and 73% for hexane and ethanol/water extracts was recorded

GREENET - An Early Stage Training Network in Enabling Technologies for Green Radio

International audienceIn this paper, we describe GREENET (an early stage training network in enabling technologies for green radio), which is a new project recently funded by the European Commission under the auspices of the 2010 Marie Curie People Programme. Through the recruitment and personalized training of 17 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), in GREENET we are committed to the development of new disruptive technologies to address all aspects of energy efficiency in wireless networks, from the user devices to the core network infrastructure, along with the ways the devices and equipment interact with one another. Novel techniques at the physical, link, and network layers to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of 4G devices will be investigated, such as Spatial Modulation (SM) for Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems, Cooperative Automatic Repeat reQuest (C-ARQ) protocols, and Network Coding (NC) for lossy networks. Furthermore, cooperation and cognition paradigms will be exploited as additional assets to improve the energy efficiency of wireless networks with the challenging but indispensable constraint of optimizing the system capacity without degrading the user's Quality-of-Service (QoS)

Ready-to-eat raspberries: qualitative and nutraceutical characteristics during shelf-life

Raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) fruits are characterised by a high content of nutraceuticals, such as vitamin C, polyphenols and anthocyanins, which are considered antioxidant compounds. The ready-to-eat raspberry product could increase the market opportunities and the consumption of this high-value-added fruit. The aim of this research was to evaluate the evolution of qualitative and nutraceutical characteristics during the shelf-life of ready-to-eat raspberries. Samples from three raspberry cultivars (‘Glen Magna’, ‘Tulameen’ and ‘Heritage’) were sanitized and then packed in polypropylene bowls. The analyses were carried out at harvest (raw material) and after 3, 6 and 8 days of storage at 3°C. The study indicated the loss of fruit firmness as the most problematic aspect, followed by a less important change in hue values from light red to dark red. The modifications of chemical-physical parameters (soluble solids content, pH and titratable acidity) during shelf-life did not compromise the product quality. Processing and cold storage affected only slightly the nutraceutical profile (scavenging activity, phenols and anthocyanin content), except for ascorbic acid, therefore, the ready-to-eat raspberries could be considered a good source of compounds with potential health benefits. Some handling difficulties were highlighted during processing due to the high fragility of fruit which caused a high percentage of waste

Online Monitoring of the Osiris Reactor with the Nucifer Neutrino Detector

Originally designed as a new nuclear reactor monitoring device, the Nucifer detector has successfully detected its first neutrinos. We provide the second shortest baseline measurement of the reactor neutrino flux. The detection of electron antineutrinos emitted in the decay chains of the fission products, combined with reactor core simulations, provides an new tool to assess both the thermal power and the fissile content of the whole nuclear core and could be used by the Inter- national Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA) to enhance the Safeguards of civil nuclear reactors. Deployed at only 7.2m away from the compact Osiris research reactor core (70MW) operating at the Saclay research centre of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the experiment also exhibits a well-suited configuration to search for a new short baseline oscillation. We report the first results of the Nucifer experiment, describing the performances of the 0.85m3 detector remotely operating at a shallow depth equivalent to 12m of water and under intense background radiation conditions. Based on 145 (106) days of data with reactor ON (OFF), leading to the detection of an estimated 40760 electron antineutrinos, the mean number of detected antineutrinos is 281 +- 7(stat) +- 18(syst) electron antineutrinos/day, in agreement with the prediction 277(23) electron antineutrinos/day. Due the the large background no conclusive results on the existence of light sterile neutrinos could be derived, however. As a first societal application we quantify how antineutrinos could be used for the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures - Version

Comprehensive screening and quantification of veterinary drugs in milk using UPLC–ToF-MS

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC–ToF-MS) has been used for screening and quantification of more than 100 veterinary drugs in milk. The veterinary drugs represent different classes including benzimidazoles, macrolides, penicillins, quinolones, sulphonamides, pyrimidines, tetracylines, nitroimidazoles, tranquillizers, ionophores, amphenicols and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs). After protein precipitation, centrifugation and solid-phase extraction (SPE), the extracts were analysed by UPLC–ToF-MS. From the acquired full scan data the drug-specific ions were extracted for construction of the chromatograms and evaluation of the results. The analytical method was validated according to the EU guidelines (2002/657/EC) for a quantitative screening method. At the concentration level of interest (MRL level) the results for repeatability (%RSD < 20% for 86% of the compounds), reproducibility (%RSD < 40% for 96% of the compounds) and the accuracy (80–120% for 88% of the compounds) were satisfactory. Evaluation of the CCβ values and the linearity results demonstrates that the developed method shows adequate sensitivity and linearity to provide quantitative results. Furthermore, the method is accurate enough to differentiate between suspected and negative samples or drug concentrations below or above the MRL. A set of 100 samples of raw milk were screened for residues. No suspected (positive) results were obtained except for the included blind reference sample containing sulphamethazine (88 μg/l) that tested positive for this compound. UPLC–ToF-MS combines high resolution for both LC and MS with high mass accuracy which is very powerful for the multi-compound analysis of veterinary drugs. The technique seems to be powerful enough for the analysis of not only veterinary drugs but also organic contaminants like pesticides, mycotoxins and plant toxins in one single method

Effectiveness of neonatal pulse oximetry screening for detection of critical congenital heart disease in daily clinical routine—results from a prospective multicenter study

Pulse oximetry screening (POS) has been proposed as an effective, noninvasive, inexpensive tool allowing earlier diagnosis of critical congenital heart disease (cCHD). Our aim was to test the hypothesis that POS can reduce the diagnostic gap in cCHD in daily clinical routine in the setting of tertiary, secondary and primary care centres. We conducted a prospective multicenter trial in Saxony, Germany. POS was performed in healthy term and post-term newborns at the age of 24–72 h. If an oxygen saturation (SpO2) of ≤95% was measured on lower extremities and confirmed after 1 h, complete clinical examination and echocardiography were performed. POS was defined as false-negative when a diagnosis of cCHD was made after POS in the participating hospitals/at our centre. From July 2006–June 2008, 42,240 newborns from 34 institutions have been included. Seventy-two children were excluded due to prenatal diagnosis (n = 54) or clinical signs of cCHD (n = 18) before POS. Seven hundred ninety-five newborns did not receive POS, mainly due to early discharge after birth (n = 727; 91%). In 41,445 newborns, POS was performed. POS was true positive in 14, false positive in 40, true negative in 41,384 and false negative in four children (three had been excluded for violation of study protocol). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value were 77.78%, 99.90%, 25.93% and 99.99%, respectively. With POS as an adjunct to prenatal diagnosis, physical examination and clinical observation, the percentage of newborns with late diagnosis of cCHD was 4.4%. POS can substantially reduce the postnatal diagnostic gap in cCHD, and false-positive results leading to unnecessary examinations of healthy newborns are rare. POS should be implemented in routine postnatal care

Feebly Interacting Particles: FIPs 2022 workshop report

Particle physics today faces the challenge of explaining the mystery of dark matter, the origin of matter over anti-matter in the Universe, the origin of the neutrino masses, the apparent fine-tuning of the electro-weak scale, and many other aspects of fundamental physics. Perhaps the most striking frontier to emerge in the search for answers involves new physics at mass scales comparable to familiar matter, below the GeV-scale, or even radically below, down to sub-eV scales, and with very feeble interaction strength. New theoretical ideas to address dark matter and other fundamental questions predict such feebly interacting particles (FIPs) at these scales, and indeed, existing data provide numerous hints for such possibility. A vibrant experimental program to discover such physics is under way, guided by a systematic theoretical approach firmly grounded on the underlying principles of the Standard Model. This document represents the report of the FIPs 2022 workshop, held at CERN between the 17 and 21 October 2022 and aims to give an overview of these efforts, their motivations, and the decadal goals that animate the community involved in the search for FIPs