Induction of systemic resistance in tomato by the autochthonous phylloplane resident Bacillus cereus.

The objective of this work was to verify if the induced resistance mechanism is responsible for the capacity of a phylloplane resident bacteria (Bacillus cereus), isolated from healthy tomato plants, to control several diseases of this crop. A strain of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato was used as the challenging pathogen. The absence of direct antibiosis of the antagonist against the pathogen, the significant increase in peroxidases activity in tomato plants exposed to the antagonist and then inoculated with the challenging pathogen, as well as the character of the protection, are evidences wich suggest that biocontrol efficiency presented by the antagonist in previous works might be due to induced systemic resistance (ISR)

Ensemble fuzzy models in personalized medicine: Application to vasopressors administration

Vasopressors administration in intensive care units is a risky surgical procedure that can be associated with infections, especially if done urgently such as in the case of unexpected systemic shock. The early prediction of a patient׳s transition to vasopressor dependence could improve overall outcomes associated with the procedure. Personalized medicine in the ICU encompasses the customization of healthcare on the level of individual patients, with diagnostic tests, monitoring interventions and treatments being fitted to the individual rather than the “average” patient. In this scope, this paper proposes an ensemble fuzzy modeling approach to a classification problem based on subgroups of patients identified by individual characteristics. A fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm was implemented to find subgroups of patients and each subgroup was used to develop a fuzzy model. The final classification of the ensemble fuzzy approach is obtained using two output selection criteria: an a priori decision criterion based on the distance from the cluster centers to the patients׳ characteristics, and an a posteriori decision criterion based on the uncertainty of the model output. The performance of the proposed approach is investigated using a real world clinical database and nine benchmark datasets. The ensemble fuzzy model approach performs better than the single model for the prediction of vasopressors administration in the ICU, being the a posteriori approach the best performer, with an average AUC of 0.85, showing this way the advantage of a personalized approach for patient care in the ICU.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Growing up in Portugal: Cape Verdean ancestry children exhibit low overweight and obesity compared to Portuguese in urban Lisbon

Portugal has one of the highest rates of childhood overweight and obesity (OW/OB) in Europe. However little is known about the health of ethnic minorities living in its capital city, Lisbon. The Cape Verdean community in Lisbon tend to have low educational levels, material deprivation and they struggle with discrimination and racism, factors that would likely be associated with a higher prevalence of OW/OB. Data for the Cape Verdean population were collected in three different time periods by three different research teams in 1993, 2009 and 2013 and included children from 6 to 12 years living in Cova da Moura neighbourhood, Great Lisbon Metro Area (GLMA). The Portuguese national survey was collected between 2009/2010 at public and private schools in mainland Portugal and included height, weight, skinfolds, arm, and waist circumferences. From these survey data body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of stunting, (chronic malnutrition - low height-for-age) and underweight (low-weight-for-age) were calculated according to reference values proposed by Frisancho (2008). Overweight and obesity values were defined based on the references established by the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Results show that there are significant differences in height for boys and girls between Cape Verdean and Portuguese children. Generally, Cape Verdeans’ growth falls within the healthy range of International growth references across all of the survey data collected. Cape Verdean rates for combined overnutrition (overweight and obesity) in 2013 (9.8% for boys and 16.7% for girls) are lower than the Portuguese (33% for boys and 31.7% for girls). Logistic regression models showed that Cape Verdean children have a lower risk of being OW/OB when accounting for breastfeeding,birthweight,maternal education and occupation. Despite living in a deprived neighbourhood these Cape Verdean children seem to have grown more healthily than Portuguese ancestry children. The challenge for policy makers will be to support improvement of the poverty related living conditions of this community without creating a risky environment for increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity

Is there still room to explore cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase-producers in Brazilian biodiversity?

In the present work, different Brazilian biomes aiming to identify and select cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase-producer bacteria are explored. This enzyme is responsible for converting starch to cyclodextrin, which are interesting molecules to carry other substances of economic interest applied by textile, pharmaceutical, food, and other industries. Based on the enzymatic index, 12 bacteria were selected and evaluated, considering their capacity to produce the enzyme in culture media containing different starch sources. It was observed that the highest yields were presented by the bacteria when grown in cornstarch. These bacteria were also characterized by sequencing of the 16S rRNA region and were classified as Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Gracilibacillus and Solibacillus.publishersversionpublishe

Theoretical and experimental differential cross sections for electron impact excitation of the electronic bands of furfural

13 págs.; 8 figs.; 6 tabs.We report results from a joint experimental and theoretical investigation into electron scattering from the important industrial species furfural (CHO). Specifically, differential cross sections (DCSs) have been measured and calculated for the electron-impact excitation of the electronic states of CHO. The measurements were carried out at energies in the range 20-40 eV, and for scattered-electron angles between 10°and 90°. The energy resolution of those experiments was typically ∼80 meV. Corresponding Schwinger multichannel method with pseudo-potential calculations, for energies between 6-50 eV and with and without Born-closure, were also performed for a sub-set of the excited electronic-states that were accessed in the measurements. Those calculations were undertaken at the static exchange plus polarisation-level using a minimum orbital basis for single configuration interaction (MOB-SCI) approach. Agreement between the measured and calculated DCSs was qualitatively quite good, although to obtain quantitative accord, the theory would need to incorporate even more channels into the MOB-SCI. The role of multichannel coupling on the computed electronic-state DCSs is also explored in some detail. ©2016 AIP Publishing LLCR.F.C.N. thanks CNPq (Brazil) and the Science Without Borders Programme for opportunities to study abroad. D.B.J. thanks the Australian Research Council (ARC) for financial support provided through a Discovery Early Career Research Award, while M.J.B. also thanks the ARC for their support. M.J.B. and M.C.A.L. acknowledge the Brazilian agencies CNPq and FAPEMIG. P.L.-V. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCTMEC) through Grant Nos. PTDC/FIS-ATO/1832/2012 and UIO/FIS/00068/2013. G.G. acknowledges partial financial support from the Spanish Ministry MINECO (Project No. FIS2012-31230) and the European Union COST Action No. CM1301 (CELINA). Finally, R.F.d.C., M.T.d.N.V., M.H.F.B., and M.A.P.L. acknowledge support from the Brazilian agency CNPq and M.T.d.N.V. also thanks FAPESP.Peer Reviewe