International survey of Cronobacter sakazakii and other Cronobacter spp. in follow up formulas and infant food

A coordinated survey for Cronobacter and related organisms in powdered infant formula, follow up formula and infant foods was undertaken by 8 laboratories in 7 countries in recognition of and in response to the data needs identified in an FAO/WHO call for data in order to develop global risk management guidance for these products. The products (domestic and imported) were purchased from the local market and were categorised according to their principle ingredients. A total of 290 products were analysed using a standardised procedure of pre-enrichment in 225 ml Buffered Peptone Water (BPW), followed by enrichment in Enterobacteriaceae Enrichment (EE) broth, plating on the chromogenic Cronobacter Druggan–Forsythe–Iversen (DFI) agar and presumptive identification with ID 32 E. Presumptive Cronobacter isolates were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Aerobic plate counts (APC) of the products were also determined on nutrient agar. Fourteen samples had APC > 105 cfu/g, 3 of which contained probiotic cultures. C. sakazakii was isolated from 27 products; 3/91 (3%) follow up formulas (as defined by Codex Alimentarius Commission), and 24/199 (12%) infant foods and drinks. Hence C. sakazakii was less prevalent in follow up formula than other foods given to infants over the same age range. A range of other bacteria were also isolated from follow up formulas, including Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, and Serratia ficaria. There was significant variation in the reconstitution instructions for follow up formulas. These included using water at temperatures which would enable bacterial growth. Additionally, the definition of follow up formula varied between countries

Innovating portuguese traditional pastry – on the use of pasteurised egg yolk in “ovos moles”

“Ovos moles” is a renowned traditional Portuguese sweet that is confectioned with egg yolk, sugar and water. In this work a safer and easier to manipulate raw material - pasteurised liquid egg yolk - is proposed to substitute the intact shell eggs used in traditional “ovos moles” production. Due to previous heat treatment, pasteurised liquid egg yolk presents different sensorial, nutritional and physical properties. These changes may alter the final product’s characteristics. In order to develop a safer formulation, using pasteurised raw products, with minimised differences from the traditional product, a study on adding pasteurised egg white (as bulking agent) to the pasteurised liquid yolk was carried out. Samples made with normal shell eggs and with pasteurised liquid eggs were compared in terms of rheological parameters. Results allow characterising the physical properties of traditional ovos moles and of alternative formulations, using pasteurised egg yolk and white. A new formula, with rheological properties identical to the traditional one, was developed

Study of the effect of freezing on the visco-elastic properties of strawberries

The objective of this work was to study the influence of freezing on the visco-elastic properties of strawberries. Food structure plays an important role in food quality and functionality. It is important for the consumers to find an identical sensation when they eat a fresh strawberry and when the strawberry is defrosted. The visco-elastic properties of a food product are an indirect measure of its structure. Experimental measurements of these properties may correlate to changes on the physical attributes of the product. In this work, a dynamic mechanical analyser was used to assess changes on loss (E’’) and storage (E’) modulus, applying a compressive test with a Ø1.5 cm parallel plate geometry. Strawberries were acquired in a local market and frozen in a blast and fluidized bed freezer at –30 ºC for 1 hour. Samples were stored at –30 ºC in freezing chambers. Analyses were performed on fresh strawberries, after freezing and during storage. The samples were cut in small cylinders (1.5cm x 1.5cm) and left to relax during 1 hour at room temperature. Preliminary tests were performed in order to evaluate the linear visco-elastic region and the loss and storage modulus were determined. A dynamic frequency sweep test was also performed. Results showed that the behaviour of fresh strawberry sample varies significantly when compared with a defrosted sample. The influence of the storage still cannot be evaluated and is currently under study. Overall, it can be concluded that the freezing process greatly influenced the visco-elastic properties of the strawberries

Neurodevelopmental Outcome Predictors of Term Newborns With Neonatal Seizures

Introduction: The concrete burden of neonatal seizures in neurodevelopmental outcome of term newborns is still unknown in literature. The aim of this study was to describe prognostic predictors in neonatal seizures. Subjects and methods: Observational prospective study of term neonates with clinical seizures from a tertiary center (2009-2018). Adverse outcome was determined as death, global developmental delay, cerebral palsy or epilepsy. Perinatal characteristics, etiology, electrographic features, neuroimaging and antiepileptic treatment were analyzed in a logistic regression model. Results: A total of 102 newborns were included (52 infants with normal outcome). Twelve fatalities were registered. In the survival group, 38 children had an adverse outcome (28 global developmental delay, 27 cerebral palsy, 21 epilepsy). From the prognostic variables identified in univariate analysis, perinatal complications, seizure onset in the first day of life, moderate to severe abnormal background activity, abnormal amplitude-integrated EEG pattern, and treatment response remained independently associated with adverse outcome after a logistic regression model. Conclusions: There is conflicting data about surrogate markers in neonatal seizures. Aside from confirming the predictive value of previously described variables, we observed that amplitude-integrated EEG monitoring is a forthcoming prognostic tool. Future approaches may include a wider use of amplitude-integrated EEG monitoring, being crucial for timely seizure identification and prompt treatment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Omacetaxine may have a role in chronic myeloid leukaemia eradication through downregulation of Mcl-1 and induction of apoptosis in stem/progenitor cells

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is maintained by a rare population of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-insensitive malignant stem cells. Our long-term aim is to find a BcrAbl-independent drug that can be combined with a TKI to improve overall disease response in chronic-phase CML. Omacetaxine mepesuccinate, a first in class cetaxine, has been evaluated by clinical trials in TKI-insensitive/resistant CML. Omacetaxine inhibits synthesis of anti-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family, including (myeloid cell leukaemia) Mcl-1, leading to cell death. Omacetaxine effectively induced apoptosis in primary CML stem cells (CD34<sup>+</sup>38<sup>lo</sup>) by downregulation of Mcl-1 protein. In contrast to our previous findings with TKIs, omacetaxine did not accumulate undivided cells <i>in vitro</i>. Furthermore, the functionality of surviving stem cells following omacetaxine exposure was significantly reduced in a dose-dependant manner, as determined by colony forming cell and the more stringent long-term culture initiating cell colony assays. This stem cell-directed activity was not limited to CML stem cells as both normal and non-CML CD34<sup>+</sup> cells were sensitive to inhibition. Thus, although omacetaxine is not leukaemia stem cell specific, its ability to induce apoptosis of leukaemic stem cells distinguishes it from TKIs and creates the potential for a curative strategy for persistent disease

Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a toxicological model to study synthetic cannabinoids and its pyrolysis products

Poster presented at the 7th European Academy of Forensic Science Conference. Prague, 6-11 September 2015"Synthetic cannabinoids are among the major psychoactive drugs widespread as safe and legal alternatives to cannabis. They are commercially available as herbal incense products intended for smoke. This has led most of developed countries to concentrate efforts in order to ban the so called “legal highs”. Despite of their increasing use, there is still a lack of information on both synthetic and natural ingredients, pharmacokinetic properties and toxic effects. In fact some of the substances seem to have stronger toxicological effects when compared to their legal counterpart. Toxicological assays are paramount to know how harmful these new substances are, helping increase public awareness since several hospitalization cases have been reported due to consumption. To tackle the new challenges posed by novel drugs worldwide, we developed an approach using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model to investigate the toxicity of pyrolysis products of synthetic cannabinoids. S. cerevisiae.

The Q2Q^2 dependence of the measured asymmetry A1A_1: the test of the Bjorken sum rule

We analyse the proton and deutron data on spin dependent asymmetry $A_1(x,Q^2)$ supposing the DIS structure functions $g_1(x,Q^2)$ and $F_3(x,Q^2)$ have the similar $Q^2$-dependence. As a result, we have obtained that $\Gamma_1^p - \Gamma_1^n = 0.190 \pm 0.038$ at $Q^2= 10 GeV^2$ and $\Gamma_1^p - \Gamma_1^n = 0.165 \pm 0.026$ at $Q^2= 3 GeV^2$, what is in the best agreement with the Bjorken sum rule predictions.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, no figures, to be published in JETP Letter

Management of imatinib-resistant CML patients

Imatinib has had marked impact on outcomes in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients for all stages of the disease and is endorsed by international treatment guidelines as the first line option. Although imatinib is highly effective and well tolerated, the development of resistance represents a clinical challenge. Since the most frequently identified mechanism of acquired imatinib resistance is bcr-abl kinase domain point mutations, periodic hematologic, cytogenetic, and molecular monitoring is critical throughout imatinib therapy. Once cytogenetic remission is achieved, residual disease can be monitored by bcr-abl transcript levels as assayed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Detection of bcr-abl mutants prior to and during imatinib therapy can aid in risk stratification as well as in determining therapeutic strategies. Thus, mutation screening is indicated in patients lacking or losing hematologic response. Moreover, search for mutations should also be performed when a 3-log reduction of bcr-abl transcripts is not achieved or there is a reproducible increase of transcript levels. In patients harboring mutations which confer imatinib resistance, novel second line tyrosine kinase inhibitors have demonstrated encouraging efficacy with low toxicity. Only the T315I bcr-abl mutant has proved totally resistant to all clinically available bcr-abl inhibitors. Strategies to further increase the rates of complete molecular remissions represent the next frontier in the targeted therapy of CML patients

Experimental Evidence for Simple Relations between Unpolarized and Polarized Parton Distributions

The Pauli exclusion principle is advocated for constructing the proton and neutron deep inelastic structure functions in terms of Fermi-Dirac distributions that we parametrize with very few parameters. It allows a fair description of the recent NMC data on $F^p_2(x,Q^2)$ and $F^n_2(x,Q^2)$ at $Q^2=4 GeV^2$, as well as the CCFR neutrino data at $Q^2=3$ and $5 GeV^2$. We also make some reasonable and simple assumptions to relate unpolarized and polarized quark parton distributions and we obtain, with no additional free parameters, the spin dependent structure functions $xg^p_1(x,Q^2)$ and $xg^n_1(x,Q^2)$. Using the correct $Q^2$ evolution, we have checked that they are in excellent agreement with the very recent SMC proton data at $Q^2=10 GeV^2$ and the SLAC neutron data at $Q^2=2 GeV^2$.Comment: 17 pages,CPT-94/P.3032,latex,6 fig available on cpt.univ-mrs.fr directory pub/preprints/94/fundamental-interactions /94-P.303