Atmospheric plasma processes for microbial inactivation: food applications and stress response in Listeria monocytogenes

This PhD thesis is focused on cold atmospheric plasma treatments (GP) for microbial inactivation in food applications. In fact GP represents a promising emerging technology alternative to the traditional methods for the decontamination of foods. The objectives of this work were to evaluate: - the effects of GP treatments on microbial inactivation in model systems and in real foods; - the stress response in L. monocytogenes following exposure to different GP treatments. As far as the first aspect, inactivation curves were obtained for some target pathogens, i.e. Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli, by exposing microbial cells to GP generated with two different DBD equipments and processing conditions (exposure time, material of the electrodes). Concerning food applications, the effects of different GP treatments on the inactivation of natural microflora and Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Enteritidis and Escherichia coli on the surface of Fuji apples, soya sprouts and black pepper were evaluated. In particular the efficacy of the exposure to gas plasma was assessed immediately after treatments and during storage. Moreover, also possible changes in quality parameters such as colour, pH, Aw, moisture content, oxidation, polyphenol-oxidase activity, antioxidant activity were investigated. Since the lack of knowledge of cell targets of GP may limit its application, the possible mechanism of action of GP was studied against 2 strains of Listeria monocytogenes by evaluating modifications in the fatty acids of the cytoplasmic membrane (through GC/MS analysis) and metabolites detected by SPME-GC/MS and 1H-NMR analyses. Moreover, changes induced by different treatments on the expression of selected genes related to general stress response, virulence or to the metabolism were detected with Reverse Transcription-qPCR. In collaboration with the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA, USA) also proteomic profiles following gas plasma exposure were analysed through Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology (MudPIT) to evaluate possible changes in metabolic processes.

β-Caryophyllene ameliorates cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in a cannabinoid 2 receptor-dependent manner

(E)-β-caryophyllene (BCP) is a natural sesquiterpene found in many essential oils of spice (best known for contributing to the spiciness of black pepper) and food plants with recognized anti-inflammatory properties. Recently it was shown that BCP is a natural agonist of endogenous cannabinoid 2 (CB(2)) receptors, which are expressed in immune cells and mediate anti-inflammatory effects. In this study we aimed to test the effects of BCP in a clinically relevant murine model of nephropathy (induced by the widely used antineoplastic drug cisplatin) in which the tubular injury is largely dependent on inflammation and oxidative/nitrative stress. β-caryophyllene dose-dependently ameliorated cisplatin-induced kidney dysfunction, morphological damage, and renal inflammatory response (chemokines MCP-1 and MIP-2, cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β, adhesion molecule ICAM-1, and neutrophil and macrophage infiltration). It also markedly mitigated oxidative/nitrative stress (NOX-2 and NOX-4 expression, 4-HNE and 3-NT content) and cell death. The protective effects of BCP against biochemical and histological markers of nephropathy were absent in CB(2) knockout mice. Thus, BCP may be an excellent therapeutic agent to prevent cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity through a CB(2) receptor-dependent pathway. Given the excellent safety profile of BCP in humans it has tremendous therapeutic potential in a multitude of diseases associated with inflammation and oxidative stress.

Novel TULP1 mutation causing leber congenital amaurosis or early onset retinal degeneration

PURPOSE: To report a large, consanguineous Algerian family affected with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) or early-onset retinal degeneration (EORD). METHODS: All accessible family members underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, and blood was obtained for DNA extraction. Homozygosity mapping was performed with markers flanking 12 loci associated with LCA. The 15 exons of TULP1 were sequenced. RESULTS: Seven of 30 examined family members were affected, including five with EORD and two with LCA. All patients had nystagmus, hemeralopia, mild myopia, and low visual acuity without photophobia. Fundus features were variable among EORD patients: typical spicular retinitis pigmentosa or clumped pigmented retinopathy with age-dependent macular involvement. A salt-and-pepper retinopathy with midperipheral retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophy was present in the older patients with LCA, whereas the retina appeared virtually normal in the younger ones. Both scotopic and photopic electroretinograms were nondetectable. Fundus imaging revealed a perifoveal ring of increased fundus autofluorescence (FAF) in the proband, and optical coherence tomography disclosed a thinned retina, mainly due to photoreceptor loss. Linkage analysis identified a region of homozygosity on chromosome 6, region p21.3, and mutation screening revealed a novel 6-base in-frame duplication, in the TULP1 gene. CONCLUSIONS: Mutation in the TULP1 gene is a rare cause of LCA/EORD, with only 14 mutations reported so far. The observed intrafamilial phenotypic variability could be attributed to disease progression or possibly modifier alleles. This study provides the first description of FAF and quantitative reflectivity profiles in TULP1-related retinopathy.

Type A aortic dissection after nonaortic cardiac surgery

BACKGROUND Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with mechanical manipulation of the ascending aorta that occasionally leads to type A aortic dissection (AAD). METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred three patients with surgical repair for AAD following nonaortic cardiac surgery were identified. With the use of logistic regression modeling, coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), either isolated or combined with another procedure in the initial operation, was associated with significantly higher operative mortality in comparison with patients with non-CABG procedures at the time of AAD repair both for all patients (odds ratio, 2.90; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-7.72; P=0.033) and for patients with acute and chronic AAD≥30 days after the initial operation (odds ratio, 3.62; 95% confidence interval, 1.13-11.54; P=0.03). In patients who developed AAD late after the initial operation, operative mortality was highest in patients without preoperative coronary angiography and appropriate management of their native coronary artery disease and graft disease (odds ratio, 5.36; 95% confidence interval, 1.68-17.0; P=0.002). Nearly all the intimal dissection tears were located at sites of previous surgical trauma. Most of the ascending aortas that had dissected initially had a diameter≥40 mm with histological evidence of medial degeneration in resected tissue samples. CONCLUSIONS In patients who have undergone previous cardiac surgery, preexisting aortic wall pathology contributes to AAD with typical intimal damage at sites of mechanical trauma. The operative mortality was the highest in patients with previous CABG in comparison with patients with non-CABG procedures. Preoperative coronary angiography and operative management of native coronary and graft disease were significantly associated with outcome in patients with previous CABG.

Falkland Island English

This chapter examines some of the grammatical variability and non-standardness found in the English of the Falkland Islands. The Falklands are an archipelago of over 700 islands located in the western South Atlantic Ocean, 480km off the east coast of Argentina. Although the population is small – around 3000 - the islands cover an area of over 12000km2 – slightly larger than Jamaica and half the size of Wales, making them, after Greenland, the most sparsely populated political entity in the world. In political terms, the Falklands are an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. In contrast to the rural isolated image that the Falklands perhaps conjure up, the community is, in demographic terms, an urban and diverse one. Over 85% of the population living in the capital Stanley. The 2006 census (Government of the Falkland Islands 2007: 6) shows that 55% of the population were not born on the Islands, with the largest migrant groups coming from the UK, St Helena (another British Overseas Territory, located in the eastern South Atlantic), Chile and Australia. It also highlighted the fact that people born in 62 different countries were resident on the islands at the time (Pascoe and Pepper 2008: 38). By way of a comparison, only Monaco and Andorra, in Europe, have a higher proportion of their populations made up of migrants. In addition to the local Falkland population, there is a large military presence on the islands at the Royal Airforce Base at Mount Pleasant, 50km south-west of Stanley. The Head of State is the monarch of the UK, who is represented on the islands by a governor. The democratically elected 11-member Legislative Assembly is responsible for day-to-day government of the islands. The Falklands are perhaps most famous because of their 74 day occupation by Argentina in 1982. It is not appropriate here to go into detail about the dispute between the UK and Argentina about the sovereignty of the Islands. What is undisputed is that there has been a continuous Anglophone speech community on the islands since the early 1830s, making it one of the most recently developed ‘Inner Circle’ (Kachru 1985) Englishes in the world. This chapter examines the grammatical characteristics of Falkland Island English, drawn from a transcribed corpus of over 500,000 words of informal conversational speech, collected by Andrea Sudbury both in Stanley and in ‘Camp’ (the local name for the rest of the islands) (see Sudbury 2000, 2001 for more details about the methods used in the survey).

The cyclotron laboratory and the RFQ accelerator in Bern

Two proton accelerators have been recently put in operation in Bern: an 18 MeV cyclotron and a 2 MeV RFQ linac. The commercial IBA 18/18 cyclotron, equipped with a specifically conceived 6 m long external beam line ending in a separate bunker, will provide beams for routine 18-F and other PET radioisotope production as well as for novel detector, radiation biophysics, radioprotection, radiochemistry and radiopharmacy developments. The accelerator is embedded into a complex building hosting two physics laboratories and four Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratories. This project is the result of a successful collaboration between the Inselspital, the University of Bern and private investors, aiming at the constitution of a combined medical and research centre able to provide the most cutting-edge technologies in medical imaging and cancer radiation therapy. The cyclotron is complemented by the RFQ with the primary goals of elemental analysis via Particle Induced Gamma Emission (PIGE), and the detection of potentially dangerous materials with high nitrogen content using the Gamma-Resonant Nuclear Absorption (GRNA) technique. In this context, beam instrumentation devices have been developed, in particular an innovative beam profile monitor based on doped silica fibres and a setup for emittance measurements using the pepper-pot technique. On this basis, the establishment of a proton therapy centre on the campus of the Inselspital is in the phase of advanced study.

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education is a report of an international professional development project in Guatemala designed to improve literacy instructional practices and thereby raise student achievement in reading and writing. The opportunity for coaching Guatemalan teachers in teaching literacy strategies and skills provides data for this participatory action research study. This research is intended to contribute to cross-cultural understanding by graduate and undergraduate students in literacy, improved pedagogical techniques, international outreach in developing countries, and student academic success worldwide.

Whence a healthy mind: Correlation of physical fitness and academic performance among schoolchildren

Background. Public schools are a key forum in the fight for child health because of the opportunities they present for physical activity and fitness surveillance. However, because schools are evaluated and funded on the basis of standardized academic performance rather than physical activity, empirical research evaluating the connections between fitness and academic performance is needed to justify curriculum allocations to physical activity. ^ Methods. Analyses were based on a convenience sample of 315,092 individually-matched standardized academic (TAKS™) and fitness (FITNESSGRAM®) test records collected by 13 Texas school districts under state mandates. We categorized each fitness result in quintiles by age and gender and used a mixed effects regression model to compare the academic performance of the top and bottom fitness groups for each fitness test and grade level combination. ^ Results. All fitness variables except BMI showed significant, positive associations with academic performance after sociodemographic covariate adjustments, with effect sizes ranging from 0.07 (95% CI: 0.05,0.08) in girls trunklift-TAKS reading to 0.34 (0.32,0.35) in boys cardiovascular-TAKS math. Cardiovascular fitness showed the largest inter-quintile difference in TAKS score (32-75 points), followed by curl-ups. After an additional adjustment for BMI and curl-ups, cardiovascular associations peaked in 8th-9 th grades (maximum inter-quintile difference 142 TAKS points; effect size 0.75 (0.69,0.82) for 8th grade girls math) and showed dose-response characteristics across quintiles (p<0.001 for both genders and outcomes). BMI analysis demonstrated limited, non-linear association with academic performance after adjustment for sociodemographic, cardiovascular fitness and curl-up variables. Low-BMI Hispanic high school boys showed significantly lower TAKS scores than the moderate (but not high) BMI group. High-BMI non-Hispanic white high school girls showed significantly lower scores than the moderate (but not low) BMI group. ^ Conclusions. In this study, fitness was strongly and significantly related to academic performance. Cardiovascular fitness showed a distinct dose-response association with academic performance independent of other sociodemographic and fitness variables. The association peaked in late middle to early high school. The independent association of BMI to academic performance was only found in two sub-groups and was non-linear, with both low and high BMI posing risk relative to moderate BMI but not to each other. In light of our findings, we recommend that policymakers consider PE mandates in middle-high school and require linkage of academic and fitness records to facilitate longitudinal surveillance. School administrators should consider increasing PE time in pursuit of higher academic test scores, and PE practitioners should emphasize cardiovascular fitness over BMI reduction.^

William Osler: Original Papers 1898-1906

Part 1: 1898-1899 On Chronic Symmetrical Enlargement of the Salivary and Lachrymal Glands, 1898 Leprosy in the United States, with the Report of a Case, 1898 An Acute Myxaedematous Condition, with Tachycardia, Glycosuria, Melaena, Mania and Death, 1898 On some of the Intestinal Features of Typhoid Fever, 1898 Cerebro-Spinal Fever, 1898 The Arthritis of Cerebro-Spinal Fever, 1898 In Memoriam, William Pepper, 1899 After Twenty-Five Years, 1899 The Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever, 1899 Interstitial Processes in the Central Nervous System, 1899 Part 2: 1900 The Home Treatment of Consumption, 1900 On Splenic Anaemia, 1900 The Chronic Intermittent Fever of Endocarditis, 1900 A Case of Multiple Gangrene in Malarial Fever, 1900 Latent Cancer of the Stomach, 1900 On the Study of Tuberculosis, 1900 Fatal Angina Pectoris without Lesions of the Coronary Arteries of a Young Man, 1900 On the Advantages of a Trace of Albumin and a Few Casts in the Urine of Certain Men above Fifty Years of Age, 1900 Part 3: 1901-1902 Congenital Absence of the Abdominal Muscles with Distended Hypertrophied Urinary Bladder, 1901 Intermittent Claudication, 1902 On the Diagnosis of Bilateral Cystic Kidney, 1902 On Amebic Abscess of the Liver, 1902 Note on the Occurrence of Ascites in Solid Abdominal Tumors, 1902 Amebic Dysentery, 1902 Notes on Aneurism, 1902 William Beaumont; a Pioneer American Physiologist, 1902 Part 4: 1903 On the Educational Value of the Medical Society, 1903 On obliteration of the Superior Vena Cava,1903 Chronic Cyanosis, with Polycythemia and Enlarged Spleen: A New Clinical Entity, 1903 The Home and its Relation to the Tuberculosis Problem, 1903 Unity, Peace, and Concord, 1903 Typhoid Fever and Tuberculosis, 1903 Part 5: 1904-1906 Ochronosis, 1904 The “Phthisiologia” of Richard Morton, M.D., 1904 On the Surgical Importance of the Visceral Crises In the Erythema Group of Skin Diseases, 1904 Aneurysm of the Abdominal Aorta, 1905 Back Notes

Oidiopsis taurica : nuevo patógeno de pimiento (Capsicum annum L.) y ají (Capsicum frutescens L.) en Mendoza (Argentina)

En febrero de 1998 se observó en cultivos de pimiento y ají de Mendoza (Argentina) muerte anticipada de plantas con severos daños en la producción. La magnitud del problema motivó una prospección en los principales oasis de la provincia, a fin de describir la sintomatología, conocer su dispersión, estimar los daños causados y recolectar material para realizar estudios en laboratorio tendientes a confirmar su etiología. Se constató que la afección se encontraba distribuida en todos los oasis del centro y norte. La sintomatología en hojas se caracterizó por la presencia en la cara adaxial de manchas amarillentas, de forma circular de 15 a 20 mm de diámetro, con puntuaciones necróticas, con tendencia a presentarse en anillos concéntricos. En la cara abaxial, generalmente las lesiones eran acompañadas de un micelio blanco tenue. Posteriormente siguió una severa defoliación. La producción disminuyó notablemente y además en pimiento los frutos fueron afectados por escaldaduras de sol y perdieron su valor comercial. A partir de aislamientos de pimiento y ají, mantenidos en plantas de brincos (Impatiens balsamina L.), se inocularon plantas sanas y se logró reproducir la enfermedad en condiciones de invernáculo.

Tecnologías de conservación por métodos combinados en pimiento, chaucha y berenjena

La tecnología de los métodos combinados permite reducir la intensidad del tratamiento térmico y mantener las propiedades organolépticas en el producto final, mediante una combinación de obstáculos que aseguran la estabilidad y seguridad microbiana. El objetivo de este trabajo fue aplicar dicha tecnología en la conservación de tres hortalizas: pimiento, chaucha y berenjena y analizar la calidad y vida útil de los productos obtenidos. La elaboración de las conservas se efectuó del siguiente modo: las hortalizas fueron cortadas y posteriormente escaldadas en solución de ácidos cítrico, láctico y acético. Terminada esta etapa se envasaron con la solución de relleno, constituida por los ácidos de la solución de escaldado con la adición de ácido ascórbico. Los análisis que se realizaron tanto en el material fresco como en los productos procesados fueron: humedad, pH, hidratos de carbono, lípidos, proteína, vitamina C, °Brix, actividad enzimática y acidez total. En los productos ya procesados se realizó el control microbiológico. Los resultados indican que la aplicación de los métodos combinados permite conservar los productos elaborados a temperatura ambiente y se mantiene su seguridad microbiológica.

Transformaciones en tecnología hortícola : Mar del Plata, Argentina

A partir de 1990 la adopción de los invernáculos, así como la irrupción y crecimiento de la gran distribución (GD) generaron cambios en la estructura comercial y productiva del cinturón hortícola de Mar del Plata (Argentina). Para analizar las transformaciones más significativas se efectuó un estudio de caso considerando las innovaciones introducidas por 11 agricultores en diversos aspectos. Se enfatizaron los cultivos de tomate y pimiento porque acompañaron la expansión de la producción bajo cubierta y los de lechuga, tanto por su importancia a campo como por continuar la rotación de los dos anteriores dentro del invernáculo. Los productores más relacionados establemente con la GD planifican en función de la demanda. En cambio, los todavía vinculados con la comercialización tradicional tienden a diversificar su producción realizando las ventas en un puesto propio del mercado mayorista local o a acopiadores de otras zonas. Ambos grupos no sólo han buscado alternativas de mayor rentabilidad a través de la vía comercial; también las han aplicado en la organización del trabajo y las tecnologías utilizadas.

Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande)

Las trampas adhesivas habitualmente se emplean para monitoreo pero como las de mayor tamaño también se recomiendan para control, se examinó el efecto del tamaño de las amarillas en la captura total de Frankliniella occidentalis. En pimiento en floración se utilizaron trampas de 5 tamaños en un diseño de bloques al azar (n = 10), replicado 5 veces. La comparación de la captura en ambas caras de la placa, mediante la prueba t-pareada, arrojó diferencias significativas en el 96 % de las pruebas. Los datos fueron separados para los análisis posteriores. La diferencia en la captura/cm2 entre los tamaños de trampa se comparó mediante ANOVA y Tukey. Por no registrarse diferencias significativas en el 90 % de los ensayos la eficacia de todos los tamaños fue similar. La captura total se ajustó al modelo de regresión: log Y = b log X + log a siendo Y = número de insectos capturados y X = medida lineal de su tamaño (raíz cuadrada de la superficie). El ajuste al modelo fue significativo y la pendiente se aproximó a 2. Por lo tanto, la captura total fue proporcional a la superficie total, no al perímetro ni a la relación perímetro/superficie. La utilización de trampas grandes resultaría antieconómica dado su dudosa eficacia como sistema de control.