Photodynamic and Antibiotic Therapy Impair the Pathogenesis of Enterococcus faecium in a Whole Animal Insect Model

Enterococcus faecium has emerged as one of the most important pathogens in healthcare-associated infections worldwide due to its intrinsic and acquired resistance to many antibiotics, including vancomycin. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is an alternative therapeutic platform that is currently under investigation for the control and treatment of infections. PDT is based on the use of photoactive dye molecules, widely known as photosensitizer (PS). PS, upon irradiation with visible light, produces reactive oxygen species that can destroy lipids and proteins causing cell death. We employed Galleria mellonella (the greater wax moth) caterpillar fatally infected with E. faecium to develop an invertebrate host model system that can be used to study the antimicrobial PDT (alone or combined with antibiotics). In the establishment of infection by E. faecium in G. mellonella, we found that the G. mellonella death rate was dependent on the number of bacterial cells injected into the insect hemocoel and all E. faecium strains tested were capable of infecting and killing G. mellonella. Antibiotic treatment with ampicillin, gentamicin or the combination of ampicillin and gentamicin prolonged caterpillar survival infected by E. faecium (P = 0.0003, P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0001, respectively). In the study of antimicrobial PDT, we verified that methylene blue (MB) injected into the insect followed by whole body illumination prolonged the caterpillar survival (P = 0.0192). Interestingly, combination therapy of larvae infected with vancomycin-resistant E. faecium, with antimicrobial PDT followed by vancomycin, significantly prolonged the survival of the caterpillars when compared to either antimicrobial PDT (P = 0.0095) or vancomycin treatment alone (P = 0.0025), suggesting that the aPDT made the vancomycin resistant E. faecium strain more susceptible to vancomycin action. In summary, G. mellonella provides an invertebrate model host to study the antimicrobial PDT and to explore combinatorial aPDT-based treatments.

Assessment of low amounts of meat and bone meal in the diet of laying hens by using stable isotopes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Dietary patterns are associated with general and central obesity in elderly living in a Brazilian city

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Vasovagal reactions in whole blood donors at three REDS-II blood centers in Brazil

BACKGROUND: In Brazil little is known about adverse reactions during donation and the donor characteristics that may be associated with such events. Donors are offered snacks and fluids before donating and are required to consume a light meal after donation. For these reasons the frequency of reactions may be different than those observed in other countries. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted of eligible whole blood donors at three large blood centers located in Brazil between July 2007 and December 2009. Vasovagal reactions (VVRs) along with donor demographic and biometric data were collected. Reactions were defined as any presyncopal or syncopal event during the donation process. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of VVRs. RESULTS: Of 724,861 donor presentations, 16,129 (2.2%) VVRs were recorded. Rates varied substantially between the three centers: 53, 290, and 381 per 10,000 donations in Recife, Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte, respectively. Although the reaction rates varied, the donor characteristics associated with VVRs were similar (younger age [18-29 years], replacement donors, first-time donors, low estimated blood volume [EBV]). In multivariable analysis controlling for differences between the donor populations in each city younger age, first-time donor status, and lower EBV were the factors most associated with reactions. CONCLUSION: Factors associated with VVRs in other locations are also evident in Brazil. The difference in VVR rates between the three centers might be due to different procedures for identifying and reporting the reactions. Potential interventions to reduce the risk of reactions in Brazil should be considered.

REGULATION OF WHOLE-BODY ENERGY HOMEOSTASIS WITH GROWTH HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND ENDURANCE EXERCISE

We hypothesized that network analysis is useful to expose coordination between whole body and myocellular levels of energy metabolism and can identify entities that underlie skeletal muscle's contribution to growth hormone-stimulated lipid handling and metabolic fitness. We assessed 112 metabolic parameters characterizing metabolic rate and substrate handling in tibialis anterior muscle and vascular compartment at rest, after a meal and exercise with growth hormone replacement therapy (GH-RT) of hypopituitary patients (n = 11). The topology of linear relationships (| r | ≥ 0.7, P ≤ 0.01) and mutual dependencies exposed the organization of metabolic relationships in three entities reflecting basal and exercise-induced metabolic rate, triglyceride handling, and substrate utilization in the pre- and postprandial state, respectively. GH-RT improved aerobic performance (+5%), lean-to-fat mass (+19%), and muscle area of tibialis anterior (+2%) but did not alter its mitochondrial and capillary content. Concomitantly, connectivity was established between myocellular parameters of mitochondrial lipid metabolism and meal-induced triglyceride handling in serum. This was mediated via the recruitment of transcripts of muscle lipid mobilization (LIPE, FABP3, and FABP4) and fatty acid-sensitive transcription factors (PPARA, PPARG) to the metabolic network. The interdependence of gene regulatory elements of muscle lipid metabolism reflected the norm in healthy subjects (n = 12) and distinguished the regulation of the mitochondrial respiration factor COX1 by GH and endurance exercise. Our observations validate the use of network analysis for systems medicine and highlight the notion that an improved stochiometry between muscle and whole body lipid metabolism, rather than alterations of single bottlenecks, contributes to GH-driven elevations in metabolic fitness.

Influence of Incidence Angle on the Coherent Copolar Polarimetric Response of Rice at X-Band

The coherent nature of the acquisition by TerraSAR-X of both copolar channels (HH and VV) enables the generation of many different polarimetric observables with physical interpretation, as have recently been used for monitoring rice fields. In this letter, the influence of incidence angle upon these polarimetric observables is analyzed by comparing three stacks of images that were acquired simultaneously at different incidence angles (22°, 30°, and 40°) during a whole cultivation campaign. We show that the response of observables related to dominance (entropy, ratios of components) and type of scattering mechanisms (alpha angles) is not greatly influenced by incidence angle at some stages: early and advanced vegetative phases, and maturation. Moreover, the acquisition geometry drives the sensitivity to the presence of the initial stems and tillers, being detected earlier at shallower angles. This analysis is a necessary step before studying potential methodologies for combining different orbits and beams for reducing the time between acquisitions for monitoring purposes.

A high-fat meal induces low-grade endotoxemia:evidence of a novel mechanism of postprandial inflammation

Background: Bacterial endotoxin is a potently inflammatory antigen that is abundant in the human gut. Endotoxin circulates at low concentrations in the blood of all healthy individuals, although elevated concentrations are associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Objective: We sought to determine whether a high-fat meal or smoking increases plasma endotoxin concentrations and whether such concentrations are of physiologic relevance. Design: Plasma endotoxin and endotoxin neutralization capacity were measured for 4 h in 12 healthy men after no meal, 3 cigarettes, a high-fat meal, or a high-fat meal with 3 cigarettes by using the limulus assay. Results: Baseline endotoxin concentrations were 8.2 pg/mL (interquartile range: 3.4–13.5 pg/mL) but increased significantly (P < 0.05) by ≈50% after a high-fat meal or after a high-fat meal with cigarettes but not after no meal or cigarettes alone. These results were validated by the observations that a high-fat meal with or without cigarettes, but not no meal or smoking, also significantly (P < 0.05) reduced plasma endotoxin neutralization capacity, which is an indirect measure of endotoxin exposure. Human monocytes, but not aortic endothelial cells, were responsive to transient (30 s) or low-dose (10 pg/mL) exposure to endotoxin. However, plasma from whole blood treated with as little as 10 pg endotoxin/mL increased the endothelial cell expression of E-selectin, at least partly via tumor necrosis factor-α–induced cellular activation. Conclusions: Low-grade endotoxemia may contribute to the postprandial inflammatory state and could represent a novel potential contributor to endothelial activation and the development of atherosclerosis.

Domestication and the storage starch biosynthesis pathway: Signatures of selection from a whole sorghum genome sequencing strategy

Next-generation sequencing of complete genomes has given researchers unprecedented levels of information to study the multifaceted evolutionary changes that have shaped elite plant germplasm. In conjunction with population genetic analytical techniques and detailed online databases, we can more accurately capture the effects of domestication on entire biological pathways of agronomic importance. In this study, we explore the genetic diversity and signatures of selection in all predicted gene models of the storage starch synthesis pathway of Sorghum bicolor, utilizing a diversity panel containing lines categorized as either ‘Landraces’ or ‘Wild and Weedy’ genotypes. Amongst a total of 114 genes involved in starch synthesis, 71 had at least a single signal of purifying selection and 62 a signal of balancing selection and others a mix of both. This included key genes such as STARCH PHOSPHORYLASE 2 (SbPHO2, under balancing selection), PULLULANASE (SbPUL, under balancing selection) and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylases (SHRUNKEN2, SbSH2 under purifying selection). Effectively, many genes within the primary starch synthesis pathway had a clear reduction in nucleotide diversity between the Landraces and wild and weedy lines indicating that the ancestral effects of domestication are still clearly identifiable. There was evidence of the positional rate variation within the well-characterized primary starch synthesis pathway of sorghum, particularly in the Landraces, whereby low evolutionary rates upstream and high rates downstream in the metabolic pathway were expected. This observation did not extend to the wild and weedy lines or the minor starch synthesis pathways.

make half your grains whole : 10 tips to help you eat whole grains

Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples. Grains are divided into two subgroups, whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel—the bran, germ, and endosperm. People who eat whole grains as part of a healthy diet have a reduced risk of some chronic diseases

Effect of diet on phosphine toxicity, rate of development and reproduction of the rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae (Linnaeus)

One of the loci responsible for strong phosphine resistance encodes dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLD). The strong co-incidence of enzyme complexes that contain DLD, and enzymes that require thiamine as a cofactor, motivated us to test whether the thiamine deficiency of polished white rice could influence the efficacy of phosphine fumigation against insect pests of stored grain. Three strains of Sitophilus oryzae (susceptible, weak and strong resistance) were cultured on white rice (thiamine deficient), brown rice or whole wheat. As thiamine is an essential nutrient, we firstly evaluated the effect of white rice on developmental rate and fecundity and found that both were detrimentally affected by this diet. The mean time to reach adult stage for the three strains ranged from 40 to 43 days on brown rice and 50–52 days on white rice. The mean number of offspring for the three strains ranged from 7.7 to 10.3 per female over a three day period on brown rice and 2.1 to 2.6 on white rice. Growth and reproduction on wheat was similar to that on brown rice except that the strongly resistant strain showed a tendency toward reduced fecundity on wheat. The susceptible strain exhibited a modest increase in tolerance to phosphine on white rice as expected if thiamine deficiency could mimic the effect of the dld resistance mutation at the rph2 locus. The strongly resistant strain did not respond to thiamine deficiency, but this was expected as these insects are already strongly resistant. We failed, however, to observe the expected synergistic increase in resistance due to combining thiamine deficiency with the weakly resistant strain. The lack of interaction between thiamine content of the diet and the resistance genotype in determining the phosphine resistance phenotype suggests that the mode of inhibition of the complexes is a critical determinant of resistance.

The Prospect of Hydrolyzed Feather Meal as Ruminant Feeds Through Protein Quality Improvement by Microbes

The waste of the broiler processing (feather) is a potential source for animal feed. However the presence of keratins cause limited of feather use. Before using, therefore, feather must be treated to hydrolyze cysteine disulfide bound dominating keratins protein. Enzymatic (biological) treatment using microbes will produce specific feather hydrolyzed and does not have negative impact on environment. The research objected to get the microbes which degradated selected keratins, improve protein quality of feather meal and find out the best ration formulation true in vitro the basic information to formulate in vivo ration. The research has been done in Laboratory of Animal Feedstuff Faculty of Animal Science UNSOED for eight months. Fermentation trial was done on liquid media with bath system. In vitro trial used of Tilley and Terry methods with parameter observe was dry matter digestibility, organic matter digestibility, protein degradation, total VFA and solubility in pepsin. Based on all parameter, on fermentation trial with Bacillus licheniformis decides broiler chicken feather had good prospect to be developed on feed protein source. In vitro trial recommended ration with formulation of fermented feather meal concentrate (15 percent), soybeans meal (5 percent), rice bran (20 percent), molasses (4 percent), mineral mix (1 percent), with forage: concentrate ratio 40 : 60 could be used as in vivo ration. (Animal Production 5(1): 19-24 (2003) Key words : Hydrolyze, Feather, Keratin, Digestibility, Ruminant

Whole of life cycle cost analysis in bridge rehabilitation

The report presents a methodology for whole of life cycle cost analysis of alternative treatment options for bridge structures, which require rehabilitation. The methodology has been developed after a review of current methods and establishing that a life cycle analysis based on a probabilistic risk approach has many advantages including the essential ability to consider variability of input parameters. The input parameters for the analysis are identified as initial cost, maintenance, monitoring and repair cost, user cost and failure cost. The methodology utilizes the advanced simulation technique of Monte Carlo simulation to combine a number of probability distributions to establish the distribution of whole of life cycle cost. In performing the simulation, the need for a powerful software package, which would work with spreadsheet program, has been identified. After exploring several products on the market, @RISK software has been selected for the simulation. In conclusion, the report presents a typical decision making scenario considering two alternative treatment options.