Hygienic quality of dehydrated aromatic herbs marketed in Southern Portugal

Dehydrated aromatic herbs are highly valued ingredients, widely used at home level and by food processing industry, frequently added to a great number of recipes in the Mediterranean countries. Despite being considered low-moisture products and classified as GRAS, during pre and post-harvesting stages of production they are susceptible of microbial contamination. In Europe an increasing number of food recalls and disease outbreaks associated with dehydrated herbs have been reported in recent years. In this study the microbial quality of 99 samples of aromatic herbs (bay leaves, basil, coriander, oregano, parsley, Provence herbs, rosemary and thyme) collected from retails shops in the region of Algarve (Southern Portugal) was assessed. All the samples were tested by conventional methods and were assayed for the total count of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms, Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, coagulase-positive staphylococci and filamentous fungi. Almost 50 % of the herbs did not exceed the aerobic mesophilic level of 104 CFU/g. The fungi count regarded as unacceptable (106 CFU/g) was not found in any of the tested herbs, while 84 % of the samples ranged from ≤102 to 104 CFU/g. No sample was positive for the presence of Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli and staphylococci. The results are in compliance with the European Commission criteria although they point out to the permanent need of surveillance on the good standards of handling/cooking practices as well as the importance of avoiding contamination at production, retailing and distribution. The microbiological hazards associated with the pathogenic and toxigenic microbiota of dried herbs remain as a relevant public health issue, due to the fact that they are added to foods not submitted to any following lethal procedure. Control measures should be adopted in order to ensure that all phases of their supply chain respect the food safety standards.FCT: UID/BIA/04325/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quantization of Midisuperspace Models

We give a comprehensive review of the quantization of midisuperspace models. Though the main focus of the paper is on quantum aspects, we also provide an introduction to several classical points related to the definition of these models. We cover some important issues, in particular, the use of the principle of symmetric criticality as a very useful tool to obtain the required Hamiltonian formulations. Two main types of reductions are discussed: those involving metrics with two Killing vector fields and spherically symmetric models. We also review the more general models obtained by coupling matter fields to these systems. Throughout the paper we give separate discussions for standard quantizations using geometrodynamical variables and those relying on loop quantum gravity inspired methods.Comment: To appear in Living Review in Relativit

The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope: I. Overview of the instrument and its capabilities

We provide an overview of the design and capabilities of the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. NIRSpec is designed to be capable of carrying out low-resolution ($R\!=30\!-330$) prism spectroscopy over the wavelength range $0.6-5.3\!~\mu$m and higher resolution ($R\!=500\!-1340$ or $R\!=1320\!-3600$) grating spectroscopy over $0.7-5.2\!~\mu$m, both in single-object mode employing any one of five fixed slits, or a 3.1$\times$3.2 arcsec$^2$ integral field unit, or in multiobject mode employing a novel programmable micro-shutter device covering a 3.6$\times$3.4~arcmin$^2$ field of view. The all-reflective optical chain of NIRSpec and the performance of its different components are described, and some of the trade-offs made in designing the instrument are touched upon. The faint-end spectrophotometric sensitivity expected of NIRSpec, as well as its dependency on the energetic particle environment that its two detector arrays are likely to be subjected to in orbit are also discussed

The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope: I. Overview of the instrument and its capabilities

We provide an overview of the design and capabilities of the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. NIRSpec is designed to be capable of carrying out low-resolution ($R\!=30\!-330$) prism spectroscopy over the wavelength range $0.6-5.3\!~\mu$m and higher resolution ($R\!=500\!-1340$ or $R\!=1320\!-3600$) grating spectroscopy over $0.7-5.2\!~\mu$m, both in single-object mode employing any one of five fixed slits, or a 3.1$\times$3.2 arcsec$^2$ integral field unit, or in multiobject mode employing a novel programmable micro-shutter device covering a 3.6$\times$3.4~arcmin$^2$ field of view. The all-reflective optical chain of NIRSpec and the performance of its different components are described, and some of the trade-offs made in designing the instrument are touched upon. The faint-end spectrophotometric sensitivity expected of NIRSpec, as well as its dependency on the energetic particle environment that its two detector arrays are likely to be subjected to in orbit are also discussed

Cigarette smoke induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response in normal and malignant human lung cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although lung cancer is among the few malignancies for which we know the primary etiological agent (i.e., cigarette smoke), a precise understanding of the temporal sequence of events that drive tumor progression remains elusive. In addition to finding that cigarette smoke (CS) impacts the functioning of key pathways with significant roles in redox homeostasis, xenobiotic detoxification, cell cycle control, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) functioning, our data highlighted a defensive role for the unfolded protein response (UPR) program. The UPR promotes cell survival by reducing the accumulation of aberrantly folded proteins through translation arrest, production of chaperone proteins, and increased degradation. Importance of the UPR in maintaining tissue health is evidenced by the fact that a chronic increase in defective protein structures plays a pathogenic role in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's syndromes, and cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Gene and protein expression changes in CS exposed human cell cultures were monitored by high-density microarrays and Western blot analysis. Tissue arrays containing samples from 110 lung cancers were probed with antibodies to proteins of interest using immunohistochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that: 1) CS induces ER stress and activates components of the UPR; 2) reactive species in CS that promote oxidative stress are primarily responsible for UPR activation; 3) CS exposure results in increased expression of several genes with significant roles in attenuating oxidative stress; and 4) several major UPR regulators are increased either in expression (i.e., BiP and eIF2α) or phosphorylation (i.e., phospho-eIF2α) in a majority of human lung cancers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data indicate that chronic ER stress and recruitment of one or more UPR effector arms upon exposure to CS may play a pivotal role in the etiology or progression of lung cancers, and that phospho-eIF2α and BiP may have diagnostic and/or therapeutic potential. Furthermore, we speculate that upregulation of UPR regulators (in particular BiP) may provide a pro-survival advantage by increasing resistance to cytotoxic stresses such as hypoxia and chemotherapeutic drugs, and that UPR induction is a potential mechanism that could be attenuated or reversed resulting in a more efficacious treatment strategy for lung cancer.</p

The impact of infection on host competition and its relationship to parasite persistence in a Daphnia-microparasite system

Evolutionary studies often estimate fitness components with the aim to make predictions about the outcome of selection. Depending on the system and the question, different fitness components are used, but their usefulness for predicting the outcome of selection is rarely tested. Here we estimate host fitness components in different ways with the aim to test how well they agree with each other and how well they predict host fitness at the population level in the presence of the parasite. We use a Daphnia magna-microparasite system to study the competitive ability of host clones in the absence and presence of the parasite, the infection intensity of the parasite in individuals of twelve host clones (an estimate of both host resistance and parasite reproductive success), and parasite persistence in small host populations (an estimate of R 0 of the parasite). Analysis of host competitive ability and parasite persistence reveals strong host genotype effects, while none are found for infection intensity. Host competitive ability further shows a genotype-specific change upon infection, which is correlated with the relative persistence of the parasite in the competing hosts. Hosts in which the parasite persists better suffer a competitive disadvantage in the parasite’s presence. This suggests that in this system, parasite- mediated selection can be predicted by parasite persistence, but not by parasite infection intensity

Markers of Early Renal Changes Induced By Industrial Pollutants .1. Application To Workers Exposed To Mercury-vapor

Several markers of renal changes have been measured in a cohort of 50 workers exposed to elemental mercury (Hg) and in 50 control workers. After application of selection criteria 44 exposed and 49 control workers were retained for the final statistical analysis. Exposed workers excreted on average 22 mug Hg/g creatinine and their mean duration of exposure was 11 years. Three types of renal markers were studied-namely, functional markers (creatinine and beta2-microglobulin in serum, urinary proteins of low or high molecular weight); cytotoxicity markers (tubular antigens and enzymes in urine), and biochemical markers (eicosanoids, thromboxane, fibronectin, kallikrein, sialic acid, glycosaminoglycans in urine, red blood cell membrane negative charges). Several blood-borne indicators of polyclonal activation were also measured to test the hypothesis that an immune mechanism might be involved in the renal toxicity of elemental Hg. The main renal changes associated with exposure to Hg were indicative of tubular cytotoxicity (increased leakage of tubular antigens and enzymes in urine) and biochemical alterations (decreased urinary excretion of some eicosanoids and glycosaminoglycans and lowering of urinary pH). The concentrations of anti-DNA antibodies and total immunoglobulin E in serum were also positively associated with the concentration of Hg in urine and in blood respectively. The renal effects were mainly found in workers excreting more than 50 mug Hg/g creatinine, which corroborates our previous estimate of the biological threshold of Hg in urine. As these effects, however, were unrelated to the duration of exposure and not accompanied by functional changes (for example, microproteinuria), they may not necessarily represent clinically significant alterations of renal function