Production of R-(+)-α-terpineol by the biotransformation of limonene from orange essential oil,using cassava waste water as medium

The use of two agro-residues (liquid cassava waste and orange essential oil) in the biotransformation of R-(+)-limonene was investigated. The main components of orange essential oil were determined by GC–MS and R-(+)-limonene was shown to be the predominant constituent, accounting for more than 94% of the total content. Cassava wastewater proved to be a suitable substrate for mycelial growth, leading to good, rapid growth with all the fungal strains tested, reaching 29.4 g/l (dry weight) after 3 days of growth (Penicillium sp. 2025). The best R-(+)-α-terpineol yields were achieved when the strains were grown in cassava media and the mycelia then transferred to a new flask containing mineral medium and orange essential oil as the sole C- and energy source. One of the strains tested, Fusarium oxysporum 152B, converted R-(+)-limonene to R-(+)-α-terpineol, yielding nearly 450 mg/l after 3 days of transformation. Growth in the presence of a solution of 1% orange essential oil in decane did not increase the transformation yields.     

Cross-Approximate Entropy parallel computation on GPUs for biomedical signal analysis. Application to MEG recordings

Cross-Approximate Entropy (Cross-ApEn) is a useful measure to quantify the statistical dissimilarity of two time series. In spite of the advantage of Cross-ApEn over its one-dimensional counterpart (Approximate Entropy), only a few studies have applied it to biomedical signals, mainly due to its high computational cost. In this paper, we propose a fast GPU-based implementation of the Cross-ApEn that makes feasible its use over a large amount of multidimensional data. The scheme followed is fully scalable, thus maximizes the use of the GPU despite of the number of neural signals being processed. The approach consists in processing many trials or epochs simultaneously, with independence of its origin. In the case of MEG data, these trials can proceed from different input channels or subjects. The proposed implementation achieves an average speedup greater than 250× against a CPU parallel version running on a processor containing six cores. A dataset of 30 subjects containing 148 MEG channels (49 epochs of 1024 samples per channel) can be analyzed using our development in about 30 min. The same processing takes 5 days on six cores and 15 days when running on a single core. The speedup is much larger if compared to a basic sequential Matlab^® implementation, that would need 58 days per subject. To our knowledge, this is the first contribution of Cross-ApEn measure computation using GPUs. This study demonstrates that this hardware is, to the day, the best option for the signal processing of biomedical data with Cross-ApEn.     

Rollback-Dependency Trackability: A Minimal Characterization and Its Protocol

Considering a checkpoint and communication pattern, the rollback-dependency trackability (RDT) property stipulates that there is no hidden dependency between local checkpoints. In other words, if there is a dependency between two checkpoints due to a noncausal sequence of messages (Z-path), then there exists a causal sequence of messages (C-path) that doubles the noncausal one and that establishes the same dependency.This paper introduces the notion of RDT-compliance. A property defined on Z-paths is RDT-compliant if the causal doubling of Z-paths having this property is sufficient to ensure RDT. Based on this notion, the paper provides examples of such properties. Moreover, these properties are visible, i.e., they can be tested on the fly. One of these properties is shown to be minimal with respect to visible and RDT-compliant properties. In other words, this property defines a minimal visible set of Z-paths that have to be doubled for the RDT property to be satisfied.Then, a family of communication-induced checkpointing protocols that ensure on-the-fly RDT properties is considered. Assuming processes take local checkpoints independently (called basic checkpoints), protocols of this family direct them to take on-the-fly additional local checkpoints (called forced checkpoints) in order that the resulting checkpoint and communication pattern satisfies the RDT property. The second contribution of this paper is a new communication-induced checkpointing protocol . This protocol, based on a condition derived from the previous characterization, tracks a minimal set of Z-paths and breaks those not perceived as being doubled. Finally, a set of communication-induced checkpointing protocols are derived from . Each of these derivations considers a particular weakening of the general condition used by . It is interesting to note that some of these derivations produce communication-induced checkpointing protocols that have already been proposed in the literature.     

Prototype Platforms for Distributed Agreements

We present a prototype application for coordinating distributed agreements in multi-parties negotiations, where participants can dynamically join ongoing negotiations and where participants know only those parties they have interacted with. Our prototype is tailored to Ad-Hoc network scenarios involving the assignment of tasks for a rescue team operating over disaster areas. Our application is based on asynchronous communication and it exploits the d2pc protocol for committing or aborting a negotiation. Parties have been developed both in Jocaml+Perl and Polyphonic C. The implementation of the commit protocol allows components of both types to participate within the same negotiation.     

Evaluation of the Molecular Landscape in PD-L1 Positive Metastatic NSCLC: Data from Campania,Italy

Background: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have increased and improved the treatment options for patients with non-oncogene-addicted advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the role of ICIs in oncogene-addicted advanced stage NSCLC patients is still debated. In this study, in an attempt to fill in the informational gap on the effect of ICIs on other driver mutations, we set out to provide a molecular landscape of clinically relevant oncogenic drivers in programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) positive NSCLC patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data on 167 advanced stage NSCLC PD-L1 positive patients (≥1%) who were referred to our clinic for molecular evaluation of five driver oncogenes, namely, EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, ALK and ROS1. Results: Interestingly, n = 93 (55.7%) patients showed at least one genomic alteration within the tested genes. Furthermore, analyzing a subset of patients with PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥ 50% and concomitant gene alterations (n = 8), we found that n = 3 (37.5%) of these patients feature clinical benefit with ICIs administration, despite the presence of a concomitant KRAS gene alteration. Conclusions: In this study, we provide a molecular landscape of clinically relevant biomarkers in NSCLC PD-L1 positive patients, along with data evidencing the clinical benefit of ICIs in patient NSCLC PD-L1 positive alterations.     

MS-275 (Entinostat) Promotes Radio-Sensitivity in PAX3-FOXO1 Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma of childhood. About 25% of RMS expresses fusion oncoproteins such as PAX3/PAX7-FOXO1 (fusion-positive, FP) while fusion-negative (FN)-RMS harbors RAS mutations. Radiotherapy (RT) plays a crucial role in local control but metastatic RMS is often radio-resistant. HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) radio-sensitize different cancer cells types. Thus, we evaluated MS-275 (Entinostat), a Class I and IV HDACi, in combination with RT on RMS cells in vitro and in vivo. MS-275 reversibly hampered cell survival in vitro in FN-RMS RD (RASmut) and irreversibly in FP-RMS RH30 cell lines down-regulating cyclin A, B, and D1, up-regulating p21 and p27 and reducing ERKs activity, and c-Myc expression in RD and PI3K/Akt/mTOR activity and N-Myc expression in RH30 cells. Further, MS-275 and RT combination reduced colony formation ability of RH30 cells. In both cell lines, co-treatment increased DNA damage repair inhibition and reactive oxygen species formation, down-regulated NRF2, SOD, CAT and GPx4 anti-oxidant genes and improved RT ability to induce G2 growth arrest. MS-275 inhibited in vivo growth of RH30 cells and completely prevented the growth of RT-unresponsive RH30 xenografts when combined with radiation. Thus, MS-275 could be considered as a radio-sensitizing agent for the treatment of intrinsically radio-resistant PAX3-FOXO1 RMS.     

Salmonella Typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Respond Differently to the Fe Chelator Deferiprone and to Some Novel Deferiprone Derivatives

The ability to obtain Fe is critical for pathogens to multiply in their host. For this reason, there is significant interest in the identification of compounds that might interfere with Fe management in bacteria. Here we have tested the response of two Gram-negative pathogens, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (STM) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1), to deferiprone (DFP), a chelating agent already in use for the treatment of thalassemia, and to some DFP derivatives designed to increase its lipophilicity. Our results indicate that DFP effectively inhibits the growth of PAO1, but not STM. Similarly, Fe-dependent genes of the two microorganisms respond differently to this agent. DFP is, however, capable of inhibiting an STM strain unable to synthesize enterochelin, while its effect on PAO1 is not related to the capability to produce siderophores. Using a fluorescent derivative of DFP we have shown that this chelator can penetrate very quickly into PAO1, but not into STM, suggesting that a selective receptor exists in Pseudomonas. Some of the tested derivatives have shown a greater ability to interfere with Fe homeostasis in STM compared to DFP, whereas most, although not all, were less active than DFP against PAO1, possibly due to interference of the added chemical tails with the receptor-mediated recognition process. The results reported in this work indicate that DFP can have different effects on distinct microorganisms, but that it is possible to obtain derivatives with a broader antimicrobial action.     

Relationships between local and structural stress in the evaluation of the weld toe stress distribution

This paper deals with the problem of determining, by proper stress analyses, the stress fields near arc-welded joint toes and the use of such distributions in fatigue strength predictions. In particular, the relationships between the local stress field and the structural (geometrical) stress field are investigated under the hypothesis that highly stressed zones remain under linear elastic conditions.

The local stress distribution is given for different joints in terms of the relevant notch stress intensity factors (NSIFs), having modelled their weld beads like re-entrant sharp corners. The structural stress distribution is, in contrast, the stress field linearly distributed through the thickness of the welded plates (and sometimes on the plate surfaces), beyond the zone affected by local effects due to the beads. The aim of the proposed methodology is to provide an explicit link between NSIF values and structural stress at a well-defined distance from the weld toe. Such a distance is chosen equal to the main plate thickness.

The expressions obtained allow a direct comparison with the well-known “hot-spot stress” approach; it is demonstrated that there are circumstances of practical interest in which the usual hot-spot stress (which is the simple linear extrapolation at the weld root of the structural field) is not able to predict accurately the fatigue behaviour of the joints, whereas the combination of structural field and NSIF-based field is more advantageous.

The complete methodology can be simplified for rapid calculations involving weldments of different types. Some examples are also reported and discussed.     

Residual steam to energy: a project for Los Azufres geothermal field, Mexico

More than 500 t/h of residual steam are discharged into the atmosphere at Los Azufres geothermal field. Steam comes from nine back-pressure turbines that are at present generating 45 MW. A significant increase in output can be obtained if low pressure turbines are installed to expand residual steam from atmospheric pressure up to a vacuum pressure in condensing cycles. A net output optimization process for each unit in the condensing cycle is presented here. The exergy concept is also applied to compare efficiencies of back pressure cycles with new condensing schemes that include low pressure turbines. Results show that 27.8 MW of additional net output can be generated with the new schemes at competitive production costs and higher conversion efficiencies.