Microalgal Systems, a Green Solution for Wastewater Conventional Pollutants Removal, Disinfection, and Reduction of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Prevalence?

The low-efficiency rate of urban wastewater (UWW) treatment generates tons of discharged water with a high concentration of pollutants, pathogens and antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs). Microalgal systems may be a green alternative to be implemented as a UWW polishing treatment. This study assessed the ability of Chlorella vulgaris and UWW autochthonous microalgal species (AMS) to simultaneously remove PO4-P, and reduce the proliferation of coliforms and ARGs. AMS seems to be more promising due to: (i) the higher specific growth rate, mu(max) (0.687 +/- 0.065 d(-1)); (ii) efficient PO4-P removal (92.62 +/- 0.10%); (iii) faster reduction of coliforms proliferation achieving concentrations below the limits of quantification (6 d); (iv) the reduction of intl1 and the ARGs sul1 and blaTEM abundance in ca. of 70.4%, 69.2%, and 75.7%, respectively (9 d); and (v) the additional reduction of these genes in ca. of 97.1%, 94.2%, and 99.9%, respectively, after 5 d storage in the dark and at room temperature. Results also revealed that the high pH values in both microalgal systems (due to microalgal growth) were highly correlated with a reduction in the proliferation of coliforms, including Escherichia coli. In conclusion, using AMS as a final polishing treatment of UWW seems to be very promising

Inter-hemispheric EEG coherence analysis in Parkinson's disease : Assessing brain activity during emotion processing

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is not only characterized by its prominent motor symptoms but also associated with disturbances in cognitive and emotional functioning. The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of emotion processing on inter-hemispheric electroencephalography (EEG) coherence in PD. Multimodal emotional stimuli (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust) were presented to 20 PD patients and 30 age-, education level-, and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) while EEG was recorded. Inter-hemispheric coherence was computed from seven homologous EEG electrode pairs (AF3–AF4, F7–F8, F3–F4, FC5–FC6, T7–T8, P7–P8, and O1–O2) for delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands. In addition, subjective ratings were obtained for a representative of emotional stimuli. Interhemispherically, PD patients showed significantly lower coherence in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands than HC during emotion processing. No significant changes were found in the delta frequency band coherence. We also found that PD patients were more impaired in recognizing negative emotions (sadness, fear, anger, and disgust) than relatively positive emotions (happiness and surprise). Behaviorally, PD patients did not show impairment in emotion recognition as measured by subjective ratings. These findings suggest that PD patients may have an impairment of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity (i.e., a decline in cortical connectivity) during emotion processing. This study may increase the awareness of EEG emotional response studies in clinical practice to uncover potential neurophysiologic abnormalities

Reduced susceptibility to pyrethroid insecticide treated nets by the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae s.l. in western Uganda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pyrethroid insecticide-treated mosquito nets are massively being scaled-up for malaria prevention particularly in children under five years of age and pregnant mothers in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is serious concern of the likely evolution of widespread pyrethroid resistance in the malaria vector <it>Anopheles gambiae s.l</it>. due to the extensive use of pyrethroid insecticide-treated mosquito nets. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the status of pyrethroid resistance in <it>An. gambiae s.l</it>. in western Uganda.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Wild mosquitoes (1–2 days old) were exposed in 10 replicates to new nets impregnated with K-othrine (Deltamethrin 25 mg/m²), Solfac EW50 (Cyfluthrin 50 mg/m²) and Fendona 6SC (Cypermethrin 50 mg/m²) and observed under normal room temperature and humidity (Temperature 24.8°C���27.4°C, Humidity 65.9–45.7). A similar set of mosquitoes collected from the control area 80 km away were exposed to a deltamethrin 25 mg/m²impregnated net at the same time and under the same conditions. The 10-year mean KDT₅₀and mortality rates for each of the three pyrethroid insecticides were compared using the Student <it>t</it>-test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant increase in the mean knockdown time (KDT₅₀) and mean mortality rate were observed in almost all cases an indication of reduced susceptibility. The overall results showed a four-fold increase in the mean knockdown time (KDT₅₀) and 1.5-fold decrease in mortality rate across the three pyrethroid insecticides. There was a significant difference in the 10-year mean KDT₅₀between deltamethrin and cyfluthrin; deltamethrin and cypermethrin, but no significant difference between cyfluthrin and cypermethrin. The 10-year mean difference in KDT50 for mosquitoes exposed to deltamethrin from the control site was significantly different from that of mosquitoes from the intervention site (p<0.05, t=3.979, 9df). The 10-year mean difference in mortality rate between deltamethrin (84.64%); cyfluthrin (74.18%); cypermethrin (72.19%) and the control (90.45%) showed a significant decline in mortality across all the three insecticides.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Generally the results showed a trend of increase in mosquito resistance status with cross-resistance against all the three pyrethroid insecticides. This study reveals for the first time the development of pyrethroid resistance in <it>An. gambiae s.l</it>. in Western Uganda. It is therefore strongly recommended that the impact of this development on malaria control efforts be closely monitored and alternative fabric treatments be considered before this problem curtails community wide implementation of this malaria control strategy in Uganda.</p

Up-regulation of bone marrow stromal protein 2 (BST2) in breast cancer with bone metastasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bone metastases are frequent complications of breast cancer. Recent literature implicates multiple chemokines in the formation of bone metastases in breast cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of metastatic bone disease in breast cancer remains unknown. We have recently made the novel observation of the BST2 protein expression in human breast cancer cell lines. The purpose of our present study is to investigate the expression and the role of BST2 in bone metastatic breast cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>cDNA microarray analysis was used to compare the BST2 gene expression between a metastatic to bone human breast cancer cell line (MDA-231BO) and a primary human breast cancer cell line (MDA-231). The BST2 expression in one bone metastatic breast cancer and seven non-bone metastatic breast cancer cell lines were also determined using real-time RT-PCR and Western blot assays. We then employed tissue array to further study the BST2 expression in human breast cancer using array slides containing 20 independent breast cancer tumors that formed metastatic bone lesions, 30 non-metastasis-forming breast cancer tumors, and 8 normal breast tissues. In order to test the feasibility of utilizing BST2 as a serum marker for the presence of bone metastasis in breast cancer, we had measured the BST2 expression levels in human serums by using ELISA on 43 breast cancer patients with bone metastasis, 43 breast cancer patients without bone metastasis, and 14 normal healthy controls. The relationship between cell migration and proliferation and BST2 expression was also studied in a human breast recombinant model system using migration and FACS analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The microarray demonstrated over expression of the BST2 gene in the bone metastatic breast cancer cell line (MDA-231BO) compared to the primary human breast cancer cell line (MDA-231). The expression of the BST2 gene was significantly increased in the bone metastatic breast cancer cell lines and tumor tissues compared to non-bone metastatic breast cancer cell lines and tumor tissues by real time RT-PCR, Western blot and TMA. Furthermore, serum levels of BST2 measured by ELISA were also significantly higher among patients with breast cancer metastatic to bone compared to breast cancer patients without metastatic to bone (P < .0001). Most importantly, the breast cancer cell line that transfected with BST2 demonstrated increased BST2 expressions, which was associated with increased cancer cell migration and cell proliferation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results provide novel data indicating the BST2 protein expression is associated with the formation of bone metastases in human breast cancer. We believe that BST2 may be a potential biomarker in breast cancer with bone metastasis.</p

The cause of urinary symptoms among Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type I (HLTV-I) infected patients: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: HTLV-I infected patients often complain of urinary symptomatology. Epidemiological studies have suggested that these individuals have a higher prevalence and incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) than seronegative controls. However, the diagnosis of UTI in these studies relied only on patient information and did not require confirmation by urine culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of urinary tract infection (UTI) as the cause of urinary symptoms in HTLV-I infected patients. METHODS: In this cross sectional study we interviewed, and cultured urine from, 157 HTLV-I seropositive individuals followed regularly at a specialized clinic. All patients were evaluated by a neurologist and classified according to the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Urodynamic studies were performed at the discretion of the treating physician. RESULTS: Sixty-four patients complained of at least one active urinary symptom but UTI was confirmed by a positive urine culture in only 12 of these patients (19%); the majority of symptomatic patients (81%) had negative urine cultures. To investigate the mechanism behind the urinary complaints in symptomatic individuals with negative urine cultures, we reviewed the results of urodynamic studies performed in 21 of these patients. Most of them (90.5%) had abnormal findings. The predominant abnormalities were detrusor sphincter hyperreflexia and dyssynergia, findings consistent with HTLV-I-induced neurogenic bladder. On a multivariate logistic regression, an abnormal EDSS score was the strongest predictor of urinary symptomatology (OR 9.87, 95% CI 3.465 to 28.116, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Urinary symptomatology suggestive of UTI is highly prevalent among HTLV-I seropositive individuals but true UTI is responsible for the minority of cases. We posit that the main cause of urinary symptoms in this population is neurogenic bladder. Our data imply that HLTV-I infected patients with urinary symptomatology should not be empirically treated for UTI but rather undergo urine culture; if a UTI is excluded, further investigation with urodynamic studies should be considered

f(R) theories

Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations, and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and local gravity constraints.Comment: 156 pages, 14 figures, Invited review article in Living Reviews in Relativity, Published version, Comments are welcom

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration