Monitoring fructooligossacharides production using Aspergillus aculeatus by HPLC ELSD

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are present in plants and fruits at low concentrations, thus their extraction from natural sources may not be economically viable for a large scale industrial application. Therefore, FOS production by fermentation using fungi can be an alternative. In this work, FOS were produced using Aspergillus aculeatus at different sucrose initial concentrations (88 to 265 g/L) and at temperatures from 22 to 32ºC. FOS production was monitored by HPLC-ELSD, allowing to confirm that the initial sucrose concentration significantly influenced biomass growth (a maximum value of 16 ± 2 g was achieved) although it did not significantly affect the maximum FOS yield (amount of FOS produced per initial sucrose) obtained, which varied from 51 to 59 g/g) obtained, which varied from 51 to 59 g/g. Finally, the preliminary results enabled verifying that depending on the fermentation conditions, slightly different FOS production profiles were obtained (Figure 1), revealing differences in the individual FOS concentrations (i.e., 1-kestose, nystose and fructofuranosylnystose), which could be of interest since it has been reported that the beneficial health effects of FOS may depend on the relative FOS composition.This work was also financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-006984–Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM, UID/AGR/00690/2013 –CIMO and UID/BIO/04469/2013 funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Soft Templating and Disorder in an Applied 1D Cobalt Coordination Polymer Electrocatalyst

Disordered materials with resilient and soft-templated functional units bear the potential to fill the pipeline of robust catalysts for renewable energy storage. However, for novel materials lacking long-range order, the ability to discern local structure with atomic resolution still pushes the boundaries of current analytical and modeling approaches. We introduce a two-pillar strategy to monitor the formation and unravel the structure of the first disordered onedimensional cobalt coordination polymer catalyst, Co-dppeO2. This target material excels through proven high performance in commercial alkaline electrolyzers and organic transformations. We demonstrate that the key architecture behind this activity is the unconventional embedding of hydrated {H2O-Co2(OH)2-OH2} edge-site motifs, nested into a flexible organic matrix of highly oxidized and bridging hydrophobic dppeO2 ligands. Our combination of in situ spectroscopy and computational modeling of X-ray scattering and absorption spectra, backed with complementary experimental techniques, holds the key to understanding the atomic-range structure of important disordered materials

Dual imaging gold nanoplatforms for targeted radiotheranostics

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are interesting for the design of new cancer theranostic tools, mainly due to their biocompatibility, easy molecular vectorization, and good biological half-life. Herein, we report a gold nanoparticle platform as a bimodal imaging probe, capable of coordinating Gd3+ for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and 67Ga3+ for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) imaging. Our AuNPs carry a bombesin analogue with anity towards the gastrin releasing peptide receptor (GRPr), overexpressed in a variety of human cancer cells, namely PC3 prostate cancer cells. The potential of these multimodal imaging nanoconstructs was thoroughly investigated by the assessment of their magnetic properties, in vitro cellular uptake, biodistribution, and radiosensitisation assays. The relaxometric properties predict a potential T1-and T2-MRI application. The promising in vitro cellular uptake of 67Ga/Gd-based bombesin containing particles was confirmed through biodistribution studies in tumor bearing mice, indicating their integrity and ability to target the GRPr. Radiosensitization studies revealed the therapeutic potential of the nanoparticles. Moreover, the DOTA chelating unit moiety versatility gives a high theranostic potential through the coordination of other therapeutically interesting radiometals. Altogether, our nanoparticles are interesting nanomaterial for theranostic application and as bimodal T1-and T2-MRI / SPECT imaging probes.This research was funded by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), grant numbers EXCL/QEQ-MED/0233/2012, UID/Multi/04349/2013 and PTDC/MED-QUI/29649/2017. CFGCG and MMCAC thank FCT and FEDER through the COMPETE Program for funding the CQC (UID/QUI/00313/2013 and PEst-OE/QUI/UI0313/2014). P.L-L. thanks Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiviy for SAF2017-83043-R, and Comunity of Madrid, FEDER and FSE for S2017/BMD-368

Investigation into current industrial practices relating to product lifecycle management in a multi-national manufacturing company

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems have gained growing acceptance for managing all information relating to products throughout their full lifecycle, from idea conceptualisation through operations to servicing and disposal. This paper, through an in-depth exploratory study into a leading power generation manufacturing organisation, presents current PLM issues experienced by manufacturing companies, exploring three separate topics: 1) PLM, 2) Knowledge Management and Lessons Learnt and 3) Product Servicing and Maintenance. Following a review of published literature, results of the investigation are presented, analysing the responses of 17 employees interviewed. With respect to Product Development, it was found that information traceability is time consuming and change management requests take too long to complete. Results relating to knowledge management indicate that the Company operates a ‘who you know’ culture, but do aim to capture lessons learned on the manufacturing shop floor and assembly lines. Therefore, a prototype design is proposed to integrate the capturing of lessons learnt within the existing PLM system

‘Welcome to the Machine!’ Resisting isomorphic, masculinised corporatisation of Higher Education through feminist scholarship

This paper discusses the synthesised findings from two interdisciplinary, feminist studies conducted under the auspices of the non-corporate nexus, the Women’s Academic Network at Bournemouth University, UK, of which the main author is a co-convenor and co-founder. These qualitative studies focus on academic women’s experiences of managing careers in the work culture of corporate Institutions of Higher Education (HEI) in a modern UK university. The background to this work draws from a body of international research into the slower career progression rates of women academics in comparison to male counterparts and gendered barriers the former encounter. While there has encouragement within Higher Education bodies across the EU to balance out the current gendered inequities within academia, our findings indicate that these are woven into the institutional fabric of enacted daily academic practices serving to disadvantage women scholars

Dextran-Coated Magnetic Supports Modified with a Biomimetic Ligand for IgG Purification

The authors thank the financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through Grant PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2011 and contracts no. PTDC/EBB-BIO/102163/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/098961/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/118317/2010, SFRH/BD/72650/2010 for V.L.D, and Santander Totta Bank - Universidade Nova de Lisboa for the Scientific Award 2009/2010. The authors are grateful to Dr. Abid Hussain and M. Telma Barroso (REQUIMTE, FCT-UNL, Portugal) for the preparation of the synthetic affinity ligands, to Lonza Biologics, U.K. (Dr. Richard Alldread), and the Animal Cell Technology Unit of ITQB-UNL/IBET (Dr. Paula M Alves and Dr. Ana Teixeira) for providing the cells and the culture bulks and to Mr. Filipe Cardoso and Prof. Paulo Freitas (INESC-MN, Lisbon, Portugal) for the help with the VSM measurements.Dextran-coated iron oxide magnetic particles modified with ligand 22/8, a protein A mimetic ligand, were prepared and assessed for IgG purification. Dextran was chosen as the agent to modify the surface of magnetic particles by presenting a negligible level of nonspecific adsorption. For the functionalization of the particles with the affinity ligand toward antibodies, three methods have been explored. The optimum coupling method yielded a theoretical maximum capacity for human IgG calculated as 568 ± 33 mg/g and a binding affinity constant of 7.7 × 10⁴ M⁻¹. Regeneration, recycle and reuse of particles was also highly successful for five cycles with minor loss of capacity. Moreover, this support presented specificity and effectiveness for IgG adsorption and elution at pH 11 directly from crude extracts with a final purity of 95% in the eluted fraction.proofpublishe

Effects of lay support for pregnant women with social risk factors on infant development and maternal psychological health at 12 months postpartum

Background The ELSIPS (Evaluation of Lay Support in Pregnant Women with Social Risk) RCT showed that lay support for women with social risk had a positive effect on maternal mental health and mother-infant bonding. This exploratory study examined whether these observed benefits would impact infant development at 1 year. Methods A sub-sample of women whose infants were under one year who had participated in the ELSIPS RCT which randomised women to receive either standard care or the services of a Pregnancy Outreach Worker (POW), and who were contactable, were eligible to participate in the follow up. At home visits, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (3rd Edition) and standardised measures of depression, self efficacy, mind-mindedness and bonding were completed. Results 486 women were eligible for follow up, of whom 154 agreed to participate. 61/273 were successfully followed up in the standard maternity care arm and 51/213 in the POW arm. Women who completed follow up were less depressed and had higher selfefficacy scores at 8–12 weeks postpartum than those who did not complete follow up. There were no significant differences in maternal outcomes, infant cognitive development, receptive communication, expressive communication, fine motor development or social/emotional functioning between groups at 12 month follow up. Infants of mothers who received the POW intervention had significantly better gross motor development than infants whose mothers received standard care (p<0.03)

An ARF GTPase module promoting invasion and metastasis through regulating phosphoinositide metabolism

The signalling pathways underpinning cell growth and invasion use overlapping components, yet how mutually exclusive cellular responses occur is unclear. Here, we report development of 3-Dimensional culture analyses to separately quantify growth and invasion. We identify that alternate variants of IQSEC1, an ARF GTPase Exchange Factor, act as switches to promote invasion over growth by controlling phosphoinositide metabolism. All IQSEC1 variants activate ARF5- and ARF6-dependent PIP5-kinase to promote PI(3,4,5)P3-AKT signalling and growth. In contrast, select pro-invasive IQSEC1 variants promote PI(3,4,5)P3 production to form invasion-driving protrusions. Inhibition of IQSEC1 attenuates invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Induction of pro-invasive IQSEC1 variants and elevated IQSEC1 expression occurs in a number of tumour types and is associated with higher-grade metastatic cancer, activation of PI(3,4,5)P3 signalling, and predicts long-term poor outcome across multiple cancers. IQSEC1-regulated phosphoinositide metabolism therefore is a switch to induce invasion over growth in response to the same external signal. Targeting IQSEC1 as the central regulator of this switch may represent a therapeutic vulnerability to stop metastasis

The Molecular Genetic Architecture of Self-Employment

Economic variables such as income, education, and occupation are known to affect mortality and morbidity, such as cardiovascular disease, and have also been shown to be partly heritable. However, very little is known about which genes influence economic variables, although these genes may have both a direct and an indirect effect on health. We report results from the first large-scale collaboration that studies the molecular genetic architecture of an economic variable-entrepreneurship-that was operationalized using self-employment, a widely-available proxy. Our results suggest that common SNPs when considered jointly explain about half of the narrow-sense heritability of self-employment estimated in twin data (σg2/σP2= 25%, h2= 55%). However, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across sixteen studies comprising 50,627 participants did not identify genome-wide significant SNPs. 58 SNPs with p<10-5were tested in a replication sample (n = 3,271), but none replicated. Furthermore, a gene-based test shows that none of the genes that were previously suggested in the literature to influence entrepreneurship reveal significant associations. Finally, SNP-based genetic scores that use results from the meta-analysis capture less than 0.2% of the variance in self-employment in an independent sample (p≥0.039). Our results are consistent with a highly polygenic molecular genetic architecture of self-employment, with many genetic variants of small effect. Although self-employment is a multi-faceted, heavily environmentally influenced, and biologically distal trait, our results are similar to those for other genetically complex and biologically more proximate outcomes, such as height, intelligence, personality, and several diseases

Genetic predisposition to ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast

Background: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-invasive form of breast cancer. It is often associated with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and is considered to be a non-obligate precursor of IDC. It is not clear to what extent these two forms of cancer share low-risk susceptibility loci, or whether there are differences in the strength of association for shared loci. Methods: To identify genetic polymorphisms that predispose to DCIS, we pooled data from 38 studies comprising 5,067 cases of DCIS, 24,584 cases of IDC and 37,467 controls, all genotyped using the iCOGS chip. Results: Most (67 %) of the 76 known breast cancer predisposition loci showed an association with DCIS in the same direction as previously reported for invasive breast cancer. Case-only analysis showed no evidence for differences between associations for IDC and DCIS after considering multiple testing. Analysis by estrogen receptor (ER) status confirmed that loci associated with ER positive IDC were also associated with ER positive DCIS. Analysis of DCIS by grade suggested that two independent SNPs at 11q13.3 near CCND1 were specific to low/intermediate grade DCIS (rs75915166, rs554219). These associations with grade remained after adjusting for ER status and were also found in IDC. We found no novel DCIS-specific loci at a genome wide significance level of P < 5.0x10-8. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study provides the strongest evidence to date of a shared genetic susceptibility for IDC and DCIS. Studies with larger numbers of DCIS are needed to determine if IDC or DCIS specific loci exist