Microbiological quality of Brazil nuts milk submitted to different dehulling methods.

Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl populaly known as Brazil nut, is considered one of the noblest species of the Amazon rainforest, being found throughout this territory. Its fruit represents a high economic value due to its use in both human and animal feeding, presenting about 60 to 70% of lipids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and 15 to 20% of protein. There are many uses of Brazil nuts, and the "milk" extracted from the nuts, is usually consumed pure and used by the natives as typical food. Due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids in its composition, the nuts becomes very perishable, due oxidative processes, reduction of nutritional value, appearance of smell and rancid flavor, leading to a product with low quality, besides the susceptibility to colonization by pathogenic microorganisms due poorly handled. The process for obtaining Brazil nuts milk involves the stages of degumming of the nuts, extraction, separation of the insoluble residue, formulation and packaging. The most common form of degumming is manual. The objective of the work was to evaluate the microbiological quality of Brazil nuts and its milk obtained through the processes of manual or NaOH dehulling. The count of aerobic bacteria in the standard agar for counting (PCA), total coliforms and E. coli, presence of Salmonella sp., and counting of molds and yeasts using Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) were counted

Effects of comorbidities on quality of life in Filipino people with tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: We investigated health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in Filipino people undergoing TB treatment, and whether HrQoL was negatively impacted by comorbidity with undernutrition, diabetes (DM) and anaemia.METHODS: Adult participants were enrolled in public facilities in Metro Manila (three sites) and Negros Occidental (two sites). Multivariate linear regression was used to model the four correlated domain scores from a WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire (physical, psychological, social, environmental). A forward-stepwise approach was used to select a final multivariable model with inclusion based on global tests of significance at P < 0.1.RESULTS: In 446 people on drug-susceptible TB treatment, DM and moderate/severe anaemia were not associated with HrQoL. After adjustment for age, sex, education, food insecurity, treatment adherence, inflammation, Category I or II TB treatment, treatment phase, current side effects and inhibited ability to work, moderate/severe undernutrition (body mass index < 17 kg/m²) was associated with lower HrQoL (P = 0.003) with reduced psychological (coefficient: -1.02, 95% CI -1.54 to -0.51), physical (-0.62, 95% CI -1.14 to -0.09) and environmental domain scores (-0.45, 95% CI -0.88 to -0.01). In 225 patients with known HIV status in Metro Manila, HIV was associated with modestly reduced HrQoL (P = 0.014).CONCLUSION: Nutritional status and food insecurity represent modifiable risk factors for poor HrQoL that may be alleviated through interventions

Multicentre observational study of adherence to Sepsis Six guidelines in emergency general surgery

Background Evidence-based interventions may reduce mortality in surgical patients. This study documented the prevalence of sepsis, adherence to guidelines in its management, and timing of source control in general surgical patients presenting as an emergency. Methods Patients aged 16 years or more presenting with emergency general surgery problems were identified over a 7-day period and then screened for sepsis compliance (using the Sepsis Six standards, devised for severe sepsis) and the timing of source control (whether radiological or surgical). Exploratory analyses examined associations between the mode (emergency department or general practitioner) and time of admission, adherence to the sepsis guidelines, and outcomes (complications or death within 30 days). Results Of a total of 5067 patients from 97 hospitals across the UK, 911 (18·0 per cent) fulfilled the criteria for sepsis, 165 (3·3 per cent) for severe sepsis and 24 (0·5 per cent) for septic shock. Timely delivery of all Sepsis Six guidelines for patients with severe sepsis was achieved in four patients. For patients with severe sepsis, 17·6–94·5 per cent of individual guidelines within the Sepsis Six were delivered. Oxygen was the criterion most likely to be missed, followed by blood cultures in all sepsis severity categories. Surgery for source control occurred a median of 19·8 (i.q.r. 10·0–35·4) h after diagnosis. Omission of Sepsis Six parameters did not appear to be associated with an increase in morbidity or mortality. Conclusion Although sepsis was common in general surgical patients presenting as an emergency, adherence to severe sepsis guidelines was incomplete in the majority. Despite this, no evidence of harm was apparent

Colloquium: Mechanical formalisms for tissue dynamics

The understanding of morphogenesis in living organisms has been renewed by tremendous progressin experimental techniques that provide access to cell-scale, quantitative information both on theshapes of cells within tissues and on the genes being expressed. This information suggests that ourunderstanding of the respective contributions of gene expression and mechanics, and of their crucialentanglement, will soon leap forward. Biomechanics increasingly benefits from models, which assistthe design and interpretation of experiments, point out the main ingredients and assumptions, andultimately lead to predictions. The newly accessible local information thus calls for a reflectionon how to select suitable classes of mechanical models. We review both mechanical ingredientssuggested by the current knowledge of tissue behaviour, and modelling methods that can helpgenerate a rheological diagram or a constitutive equation. We distinguish cell scale ("intra-cell")and tissue scale ("inter-cell") contributions. We recall the mathematical framework developpedfor continuum materials and explain how to transform a constitutive equation into a set of partialdifferential equations amenable to numerical resolution. We show that when plastic behaviour isrelevant, the dissipation function formalism appears appropriate to generate constitutive equations;its variational nature facilitates numerical implementation, and we discuss adaptations needed in thecase of large deformations. The present article gathers theoretical methods that can readily enhancethe significance of the data to be extracted from recent or future high throughput biomechanicalexperiments.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures. This version (26 Sept. 2015) contains a few corrections to the published version, all in Appendix D.2 devoted to large deformation

SANITY, TRANSMISSION VIA SEEDS AND FUNGI PATHOGENICITY IN Cedrela fissilis SEEDS FROM THE SOUTH REGION OF BRAZIL

Pesquisas relacionadas \ue0 patologia de sementes de esp\ue9cies florestais nativas, especialmente aquelas mais aprofundadas, s\ue3o escassas. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a sanidade das sementes de cedro atrav \ue9s de dois m \ue9todos de detec\ue7\ue3o, avaliar a transmiss\ue3o de fungos associados \ue0s sementes para as pl\ue2ntulas e avaliar a patogenicidade de fungos associados \ue0s sementes e transmitidos para as pl\ue2ntulas. Para tanto, sementes de seis proced \ueancias, dentre os estados do Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina e Paran\ue1, foram utilizadas. Estas foram submetidas a testes de sanidade, pelos m \ue9todos do papel-filtro e batata-dextrose\ue1gar (BDA), a teste de transmiss\ue3o via sementes para as pl\ue2ntulas e a teste de patogenicidade de isolados de Rhizoctonia sp., pat\uf3geno escolhido por ser o mais frequente nos testes de sanidade e transmitido via semente. Os fungos encontrados em ambos os testes foram: Pestalotia sp., Rhizoctonia sp., Penicillium sp., Phomopsis sp., Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus sp. e Fusarium sp. Ambos os m \ue9todos podem ser utilizados para teste de sanidade em sementes de cedro. Os fungos transmitidos via semente para pl \ue2ntula foram Fusarium sp. e Rhizoctonia sp., sendo que, estes causaram danos nas ra \uedzes e posterior tombamento. Foi identificado um isolado de Rhizoctonia sp. patog \ueanico para pl\ue2ntulas de cedro, causando os mesmos sintomas relatados no teste de transmiss\ue3o.Researches about seed pathology of native forest species, especially, those more extensive, are rare. This research aims to evaluate the health of Spanish-cedar seeds through two detection methods, to evaluate the possible transmission of fungi associated to Cedrela fissilis seeds to seedlings and to evaluate the pathogenicity of the fungus transmitted by Cedrela fissilis seeds. For this, seeds from six different locations from Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paran\ue1 states were used. The seeds were submitted to sanity tests, by blotter-test and potato-dextrose-agar (PDA) methods, transmission by seeds to the seedlings and to the pathogenicity test of Rhizoctonia sp., chosen because it was common in sanity testing and transmitted by seed. The fungi found in both of the methods were: Pestalotia sp., Rhizoctoniasp., Penicillium sp., Phomopsis sp., Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus sp. and Fusarium sp. Both tests can be used for the sanity test in Cedrela fissilis seeds. The fungi transmitted by seeds to the seedlings were Fusariumsp. and Rhizoctonia sp., both causing problems in roots and subsequent damping-off. One of the isolates of Rhizoctonia sp. was identified as pathogenic to seedlings, causing the same symptoms observed on transmission test

Pressure is not a state function for generic active fluids

Pressure is the mechanical force per unit area that a confined system exerts on its container. In thermal equilibrium, it depends only on bulk properties (density, temperature, etc.) through an equation of state. Here we show that in a wide class of active systems the pressure depends on the precise interactions between the active particles and the confining walls. In general, therefore, active fluids have no equation of state, their mechanical pressures exhibit anomalous properties that defy the familiar thermodynamic reasoning that holds in equilibrium. The pressure remains a function of state, however, in some specific and well-studied active models that tacitly restrict the character of the particle-wall and/or particle-particle interactions.Comment: 8 pages + 9 SI pages, Nature Physics (2015

Reverse discrimination and efficiency in education

This article shows that reverse discrimination policies can find a justification purely on efficiency grounds. We study the optimal provision of education when households belong to different groups, differing in the distribution of the potential to benefit from education among individuals, which is private information. The main result is that high-potential individuals from groups with relatively few high-potential individuals should receive more education than otherwise identical individuals from groups with a more favorable distribution of these benefits