Microbial communities analysis assessed by pyrosequencing - a new approach applied to conservation state studies of mural paintings

The knowledge about the microbial communities present in mural paintings is of utmost importance to develop effective conservation and mitigation strategies. The present paper describes a methodological approach for the detailed characterisation of microorganisms thriving in mural paintings by combining culture-dependent methods that allow the identification of microorganisms capable of growing in the laboratory conditions and to obtain high cell densities for further studies, and culture independent methods, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and pyrosequencing. The coupled use of culture-dependent methods and DGGE does not give enough information to investigate the diversity and abundance of microorganisms present in wall paintings. Pyrosequencing, a novel molecular technique, used here for the first time in this area of research, allowed the identification of a large number of microorganisms, confirming some already identified by the cultivation-dependent methods such as fungi of the genera Penicillium and Cladosporium, but also providing a great contribution in the identification of several genera and species, not previously identified in these artworks, giving also a detailed overview of contaminants which was not possible with the other approaches. The results obtained on several mural painting samples show a strong relationship between the most deteriorated areas of the paintings and higher microbial contamination

Assessing the Need for a Nationwide Community Foundation CEO Network

In partnership with a group of community foundation leaders, CF Insights conducted a field-wide survey of community foundation CEOs to determine the strength of demand for their own formalized, unified network, which would allow them to connect to each other on issues relevant to chief executives from across the community foundation field. This report examines the results

Evidence of a bimodal effect on Saccharomyces cerevisiae UE-ME3 by vanadium (V) stress - a dual response to different V2O5 medium concentration detected in the rate growth, GSH/GSSG, G6PD, CAT T and GR enzymatic activities

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of five V2O5 medium concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 mM on cell viability, redox status and antioxidants enzymes of wine yeast S. cerevisiae UE-ME3. A slightly decrease of yeast cells growth rate for 0.5 and 1.0 mM, and a significantly decrease for 1.5 and 2.0 mM were observed. Conversely, a significantly increase of G6PD activity and GSH/GSSG ratio for 0.5 mM V2O5, and a significantly decrease of GR and CAT T activities for 0.5 and 1.0 mM also occurs. Furthermore, for V2O5, ranging between 1.0 and 2.0 mM, we observed a significantly decrease of G6PD and GSH/GSSG ratio, occurring, at the same conditions a reverse effect on GR and CAT T activities, with a significant increase of GR for 1.5 and 2.0 mM. We suppose that bimodal response of S. cerevisiae to vanadium pentoxide, eventually mediated by NADPH and GSH level, rule cell death

Aplasias Medulares Congénitas

Las aplasias medulares congénitas constituyen un grupo heterogéneo de enfermedades que se caracterizan por insuficiencia medular, asociadas frecuentemente a una o más anomalías somáticas y con riesgo elevado de neoplasias.Son enfermedades raras, generalmente diagnosticadas en la edad pediátrica, y con una mortalidad prematura importante. Los autores presentan 11 casos de aplasia medular congénita,8 deanemia de Fanconiy 3 de disqueratosis congénita. Estos casos fueron diagnosticados en los últimos 14anõs en el Hospital de Dona Estefânia

Doença de Kikuchi e Fujimoto

A doença de Kikuchi e Fujimoto, também conhecida como Linfadenite Histiocítica Necrosante, é uma entidade clínico-patológica rara cuja etiologia permanece desconhecida; tem sido sugerida a possibilidade de uma etiologia auto-imune, mas também tem sido descrita a associação com algumas infecções víricas. Os autores apresentam o caso clínico de uma adolescente de 14 anos internada por febre persistente, volumosa tumefacção cervical e alteração do estado geral. Dos exames complementares efectuados a citologia aspirativa e a biopsia ganglionar levaram ao diagnóstico da doença de Kikuchi e Fujimoto. Após a instituição da corticoterapia, verificou-se uma notória melhoria do quadro clínico

Superbubble evolution including the star-forming clouds: Is it possible to reconcile LMC observations with model predictions?

Here we present a possible solution to the apparent discrepancy between the observed properties of LMC bubbles and the standard, constant density bubble model. A two-dimensional model of a wind-driven bubble expanding from a flattened giant molecular cloud is examined. We conclude that the expansion velocities derived from spherically symmetric models are not always applicable to elongated young bubbles seen almost face-on due to the LMC orientation. In addition, an observational test to differentiate between spherical and elongated bubbles seen face-on is discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, accepted to ApJ (September, 1999 issue

Development and validation of an analytical methodology for the determination of antipsychotic drugs in hospital wastewaters by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS)

The consumption of psychiatric drugs has seen a huge increase during the last years as a consequence of the financial European crisis, and this can lead to psychological health effects causing several psychiatric diseases. These drugs have become pseudo-persistent in the environment due to their large volumes of use, and nowadays they are considered environmental emerging contaminants. Within this main group, the antipsychotic class have experienced an expressive increase in consumption, namely in Portugal, being used for the management of psychotic episodes as well as for other related behavioral symptoms and even other therapeutic indications. The present work describes the development and validation of a highly sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous determination of antipsychotic drugs in influent and effluent hospital wastewaters by GC–MS/MS. The studied compounds were levomepromazine, clozapine, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, quetiapine and ciamemazine using promazine as internal standard. Sample preparation was carried out by solid phase extraction (SPE) using mixed mode-columns (Strata XC – 200 mg) and followed by derivatization of the extracts with MSTFA (with TMCS). Chromatographic separation was achieved on a 5% phenylmethylsiloxane column. All chromatographic conditions and mass spectrometric parameters were previously optimized to enhance the maximum signal. The method was validated following internationally accepted criteria, and the studied parameters included selectivity, linearity, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), instrumental limits, precision and accuracy, stability and recovery. The procedure was linear for concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10 g/L (0.02–2 g/L for haloperidol), with determination coefficients higher than 0.99 for all analytes. Intra- and inter-day precision was lower than 15% for all analytes at the studied concentrations, while accuracy remained between a ±15% interval. Recoveries ranged from 35% to 80%. Low LODs were achieved, between 2 and 10 pg/mL, allowing a reliable and accurate quantification of the analytes at trace level (low ppb). All studied parameters complied with the defined criteria and the method enabled the successful determination of antipsychotics in hospital wastewater samples

New Results of Observations of the Only Supernova Remnant in the IC1613 Galaxy

The new results of a study of the kinematics of the supernova remnant S8 in the IC1613 galaxy are reported. The expansion velocity of the bright optical nebula is determined based on observations made with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences using MPSF field spectrograph and SCORPIO focal reducer operating in the scanning Fabry--Perot interferometer mode. An analysis of 21-cm line VLA observations of the galaxy corroborates our earlier proposed model of a SN exploding inside a cavern surrounded by a dense shell and S8 colliding with the wall of the HI shell.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy Letter

An AER handshake-less modular infrastructure PCB with x8 2.5Gbps LVDS serial links

Nowadays spike-based brain processing emulation is taking off. Several EU and others worldwide projects are demonstrating this, like SpiNNaker, BrainScaleS, FACETS, or NeuroGrid. The larger the brain process emulation on silicon is, the higher the communication performance of the hosting platforms has to be. Many times the bottleneck of these system implementations is not on the performance inside a chip or a board, but in the communication between boards. This paper describes a novel modular Address-Event-Representation (AER) FPGA-based (Spartan6) infrastructure PCB (the AER-Node board) with 2.5Gbps LVDS high speed serial links over SATA cables that offers a peak performance of 32-bit 62.5Meps (Mega events per second) on board-to-board communications. The board allows back compatibility with parallel AER devices supporting up to x2 28-bit parallel data with asynchronous handshake. These boards also allow modular expansion functionality through several daughter boards. The paper is focused on describing in detail the LVDS serial interface and presenting its performance.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-02/01Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02/01Junta de Andalucía TIC-6091Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PRI-PIMCHI-2011-076

Live Demonstration: Multiplexing AER Asynchronous Channels over LVDS Links with Flow-Control and Clock- Correction for Scalable Neuromorphic Systems

In this live demonstration we exploit the use of a serial link for fast asynchronous communication in massively parallel processing platforms connected to a DVS for realtime implementation of bio-inspired vision processing on spiking neural networks