Staphylococcus Biofilms

The majority of staphylococci produce biofilm on medical devices, which is the main mechanism to infect humans. Staphylococcal biofilms attach to abiotic or biotic surfaces, forming aggregates and protecting themselves against the immune system and the antimicrobial compounds of the host. Few studies on biofilm formation mechanism in Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) have been performed; however, there is a great interest in studying and controlling biofilm formation of this genus. This chapter exhibits the state of the art on biofilm formation in S. epidermidis and other staphylococcal species. The main goal of this chapter is to recognize the importance of biofilm formation in Staphylococcus. The participating molecules in staphylococcal biofilm formation are described. Currently, biofilm producer strains of Staphylococcus and mainly CNS have been frequently isolated at hospitals, causing significant economic losses. This chapter includes promising solutions in order to prevent medical device-associated infections, as the development of medical devices possessing anti-biofilm materials or surfaces that act against the adhesion or viability of the microorganisms

Educación en cosnumo ético y agroecológico. Hacia la soberanía alimentaria pro comunidad de la vida

En éste libro se han reunido una serie de trabajos de investigación que posibilitan la reflexión e idealmente, el cambio en los propios hábitos de consumo. Es por ello que las y los autores, académicos investigadores de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (Colombia), Universidad Complutense de Madrid y la Universidad de Granada (ambas de España), presentan distintos enfoques relacionados con el consumo responsable, como el decrecimiento, los estudios de Paz y la ética No-violenta, la filosofía del cuidado, la Carta de la Tierra, y la soberanía alimentaria, a través de reflexiones teóricas y experiencias resultantes del esfuerzo y el trabajo en el que se han comprometido intelectual y activamente para que, a través de la educación formal, no formal e informal se involucre a los actores que con su voz y su sabiduría nos ayuden a conectar de nuevo con la Naturaleza para actuar con conciencia en aras de nuestra propia supervivencia y la de todos los seres vivos. Invito a la población lectora a que iniciemos el periplo hacia el campo de las posibilidades, aquellas que nos dan la esperanza de vivir en un mundo más justo y más humano, desde una visión Biocéntrica que busca integrar a toda la comunidad de la vida.Resumen No se puede obviar el consumismo orquestado por las grandes industrias, que ha sido tan perfecto su trabajo que la humanidad aletargada camina consumiendo directo hacia el magno ecocidio autosuicida. Y surgen las preguntas ¿Dónde está la ética? ¿Qué papel juega la universidad en todo esto? ¿Aún se está a tiempo de recuperar la salud y la justicia para toda la comunidad de la vida? Aprender a discernir entre lo que es bueno, lo que es justo y lo que mejor conviene a nuestra civilización como la fracción aparentemente más sabia de la comunidad de la vida, es un indicador de la evolución del pensamiento crítico y de un sentido de responsabilidad compartida al que cada persona debiera aspirar. Los temas que se abordan son: Capítulo I La academia y su aporte a la sostenibilidad: promoción de los mercados agroecológicos y el consumo responsable Adriana María Chaparro Africano Capítulo II Educación universitaria en consumo ético no-violento y soberanía alimentaria. Hacia una calidad de vida planetaria Hilda Carmen Vargas Cancino y Lucía M. Collado Medina Capítulo III El comercio justo y agroecológico como alternativa pedagógica universitaria. Hacia la soberanía alimentaria en la Facultad de Odontología David Eduardo Velázquez Muñoz Capítulo IV La conexión con la Comunidad de la Vida. Una estrategia didáctica desde la interiorización Alfonso Fernández-Herrería Capítulo V Buena práctica: Seminario -Taller para un consumo ético. Estrategia didáctica múltiple y de promoción en la Universidad Inmaculada Gómez-Jarabo y Bienvenida Sánchez Alba Capítulo VI El consumo responsable como centro de una ética basada en la libertad y la solidaridad María del Rosario Guerra González y Nancy Caballero Reynaga Capítulo VII Dignidad humana: fundamento ético de la dignidad de la Tierra Virginia Pilar Panchi VanegasSin patrocinadore

Psoriatic Animal Models Developed for the Study of the Disease

Psoriasis is a skin disease mainly developed in humans, although it is also seen in monkeys and dogs. Animal models with psoriasis-like lesions have been a key factor for its understanding. Xenotransplants of human psoriatic skin in immunodeficient mice were the first approach for the association of immunologic problems with the development of psoriasis and have been also useful for the evaluation on new therapeutic agents. Imiquimod-induced murine psoriasis is nowadays one of the most used animal models to study this disease, perhaps because healthy wild-type mice are used, which means that it is an affordable model, easy to generate, and, more importantly, resembles the inflammatory, angiogenic and hyperproliferative characteristics of human psoriasis. Several transgenic (over-expressing VEGF, Tie2, TGFβ, STAT3, IL-36, PPARβ/γ) and knockout (lacking IκBα, JunB, IFNR-2, IL-36RA, CD18, IKK2) mice have been useful for the association of specific molecules for the development of psoriasis. Other approach has been the use of both transgenic/knockout mice and imiquimod treatment, where the importance of βTrCP, IκBζ, IL-35 and Tnip1 for the development of psoriasis was found. In this chapter, some of these animal models are discussed

Surface Proteins of Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal bacterium that causes infections such as sepsis, endocarditis, and pneumonia. S. aureus can express a variety of virulence factors, including surface proteins. Surface proteins are characterized by presence of a Sec‐dependent signal sequence at the amino terminal, and the sorting signal domain. Surface proteins are covalently attached to peptidoglycan and they are commonly known as cell wall–anchored (CWA) proteins. CWA proteins have many functions and participate in the pathogenesis of S. aureus. Furthermore, these proteins have been proposed as therapeutic targets for the generation of vaccines. In this chapter, different topics related to CWA proteins of S. aureus are addressed. The molecular structure of CWA proteins and their role as virulence factors of S. aureus are described. Furthermore, the involvement of CWA proteins in the processes of adhesion, invasion of host cells and tissues, evasion of the immune response, and the formation of biofilm is discussed. In addition, the role of CWA proteins in skin infection and the proposal to use them as potential vaccine antigens are described. The information contained in this chapter will help the readers to understand the biology of CWA proteins and to recognize the importance of surface molecules of S. aureus

Most influential journals and authors in digital business research: A bibliometric analysis

In the last few decades many firms have been making large investments in e-commerce applications, digital technologies or the use of the Internet in several business activities and processes, giving rise to the notions of digital business and digital economy. Consequently, the number of academic articles on digital business has grown exponentially. The aim of this study is to present the evolution of academic research in digital business between 1990 and 2015. The main contribution is to provide an overview of the current academic state of the art in digital business research. The analysis focuses on identifying the most productive and influential journals in digital business research, as well as the leading authors in the field. The results show a strong increase in digital business research during the last fifteen years due to the development of a good number of specialized journals of information systems. We suggest that the field of business research should expand beyond its traditional boundaries and embrace a more multidisciplinary perspective

The NALP3/Cryopyrin-Inflammasome Complex is Expressed in LPS-Induced Ocular Inflammation

In the inflammosome complex, NALP3 or NALP1 binds to ASC and activates caspase-1 which induces IL-1β. In murine LPS-induced ocular inflammation, the production of IL-1β is increased. We suggest that NALP3- or NALP1-inflammasome complex can be participating in the LPS-induced ocular inflammation. In this work, eye, brain, testis, heart, spleen, and lung were obtained from C3H/HeN mice treated with LPS for 3 to 48 hours, and the expression of NALP1b, NALP3, ASC, caspase-1, IL-1β, and IL-18 was determined. Infiltrated leukocytes producing IL-1β in the anterior chamber were found at 12-hour posttreatment. A high upregulated expression of NALP3, ASC, caspase-1, IL-1β, and IL-18 was found at the same time when infiltrated leukocytes were observed. NALP1b was not detected in the eye of treated mice. NALP3 was also overexpressed in heart and lung. These results suggest that NALP3-, but not NALP1-inflammosome complex, is participating in the murine LPS-induced ocular inflammation

A Convolutional Approach to Melody Line Identification in Symbolic Scores

In many musical traditions, the melody line is of primary significance in a piece. Human listeners can readily distinguish melodies from accompaniment; however, making this distinction given only the written score -- i.e. without listening to the music performed -- can be a difficult task. Solving this task is of great importance for both Music Information Retrieval and musicological applications. In this paper, we propose an automated approach to identifying the most salient melody line in a symbolic score. The backbone of the method consists of a convolutional neural network (CNN) estimating the probability that each note in the score (more precisely: each pixel in a piano roll encoding of the score) belongs to the melody line. We train and evaluate the method on various datasets, using manual annotations where available and solo instrument parts where not. We also propose a method to inspect the CNN and to analyze the influence exerted by notes on the prediction of other notes; this method can be applied whenever the output of a neural network has the same size as the input

Sistema de Acreditación Universitaria en Chile: ¿Cuánto hemos avanzado?

Hasta mediados de los 80, el sistema universitario chileno puede ser considerado relativamente estático y pequeño, sin embargo, a partir de la reforma de 1981, empieza a transformarse en uno de gran dinamismo y alto crecimiento. Producto de esta expansión, en 1999 se sientan las bases del sistema de acreditación de educación superior en Chile, a partir de la creación de la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación de Pregrado (CNAP) y la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación de Postgrado (CONAP), instituciones que posteriormente se fusionan conformando la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación (CNA). Este trabajo analiza el estado actual de los procesos de acreditación universitaria en Chile -en el ámbito institucional, de programas de pregrado y postgrado- comparando un conjunto de indicadores según tipologías convencionales del sistema universitario nacional. El estudio es de tipo descriptivo sustentado en información de bases de datos oficiales de la CNA y el Consejo Nacional de Educación, sobre los resultados de los procesos de acreditación universitaria e indicadores institucionales. Los hallazgos dan cuenta de la diversidad institucional imperante y, especialmente, de la diversidad cualitativa en la oferta educacional universitaria chilena, tanto de pregrado como de posgrado

Seismic performance of historical buildings based on discrete element method: an adobe church

This article presents the main concepts and the application of the discrete element method (DEM) for evaluating the seismic performance of historical buildings. Furthermore, the out-of-plane behavior of an adobe church with thick walls, in which the morphology of the cross-section can have an influence on the response, was evaluated by the DEM. The performance of rigid and deformable blocks models was compared, and the sensitivity of the numerical model to the variation of critical parameters was investigated. The results allowed the identification of the most vulnerable elements and a proposal of recommendations for reducing the seismic vulnerability

Powdery mildew resistance genes in vines: an opportunity to achieve a more sustainable viticulture

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera) is one of the main fruit crops worldwide. In 2020, the total surface area planted with vines was estimated at 7.3 million hectares. Diverse pathogens affect grapevine yield, fruit, and wine quality of which powdery mildew is the most important disease prior to harvest. Its causal agent is the biotrophic fungus Erysiphe necator, which generates a decrease in cluster weight, delays fruit ripening, and reduces photosynthetic and transpiration rates. In addition, powdery mildew induces metabolic reprogramming in its host, affecting primary metabolism. Most commercial grapevine cultivars are highly susceptible to powdery mildew; consequently, large quantities of fungicide are applied during the productive season. However, pesticides are associated with health problems, negative environmental impacts, and high costs for farmers. In paralleled, consumers are demanding more sustainable practices during food production. Therefore, new grapevine cultivars with genetic resistance to powdery mildew are needed for sustainable viticulture, while maintaining yield, fruit, and wine quality. Two main gene families confer resistance to powdery mildew in the Vitaceae, Run (Resistance to Uncinula necator) and Ren (Resistance to Erysiphe necator). This article reviews the powdery mildew resistance genes and loci and their use in grapevine breeding program