Gangliosides and sialic acid effects upon newborn pathogenic bacteria adhesion: An in vitro study

The effect of the main gangliosides (GM₁, GM₃, GD₃) and free sialic acid (Neu5Ac) upon the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria implicated in infant diarrhoea is assessed in vitro using the Caco-2 cell line. Concentrations of the bioactive compounds found in the bioaccessible (soluble) fraction of infant formula and human milk are employed. Bacterial adhesion behaviour included enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), enteropathogenic E.coli (EPEC), Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella entericaserovartyphi, Shigella sonnei, Campylobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori. Three different approaches were assayed: pre-incubation of bacteria and compounds before addition to cells (competition); pre-incubation of the cells with compounds (exclusion); and pre-incubation of cells with bacteria (displacement). Furthermore, the spatial localization of the most abundant gangliosides, GM₃ and GD₃, in Caco-2 cells has been determined using confocal microscopy. Results show that GM₃, GD₃, GM₁ and Neu5Ac at the assayed concentrations are able to interfere with the adhesion of several pathogenic bacteria involved in neonatal diseases-the greatest effect corresponding to Neu5Ac, followed by GD₃, GM₁ and GM₃. Gangliosides GM₃ and GD₃ are located in the apical and basolateral membranes of the Caco-2 cells.     

Service-level availability estimation of GPRS

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) extends the Global System Mobile Communication (GSM) by introducing a packet-switched transmission service. This paper analyzes the GPRS behavior under critical conditions. In particular, we focus on outages, which significantly impact the GPRS dependability. In fact, during outage periods, the cumulative number of users trying to access the service grows proportionally over time. When the system resumes its operations, the overload caused by accumulated users determines a higher probability of collisions on resources assignment and, therefore, a degradation of the overall QoS. This paper adopts a stochastic activity network modeling approach for evaluating the dependability of a GPRS network under outage conditions. The major contribution of this study lies in the novel perspective the dependability study is framed in. Starting from a quite classical availability analysis, the network dependability figures are incorporated into a very detailed service model that is used to analyze the overload effect GPRS has to face after outages, gaining deep insights on its impact on user's perceived QoS. The result of this modeling is an enhanced availability analysis, which takes into account not only the bare estimation of unavailability periods, but also the important congestion phenomenon following outages that contribute to service degradation for a certain period of time after operations resume.     

Abnormal sensitivity to duodenal lipid infusion in patients with functional dyspepsia

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with functional dyspepsia exhibit increased sensitivity to gastric distension (mechanoreceptors) and to meals rich in fat (chemoreceptors). The aim of this study was to test whether these patients were abnormally sensitive to intraduodenal lipid, and whether this stimulus altered gastric mechanosensitivity. METHODS AND DESIGN: Experiments were conducted on 10 patients and 10 healthy controls. The stomach was distended with a flaccid bag during duodenal infusion of either 10% Intralipid or 0.9% saline. Intragastric pressure was recorded continuously, and the participants were asked to report gastric sensations of fullness and discomfort. RESULTS: Intragastric pressure profiles during distension were similar in patients and controls. Lipid decreased intragastric pressure and reduced phasic contractility. Patients showed enhanced sensitivity to gastric distension compared with controls during both saline and lipid infusions. In the controls, threshold volumes for fullness and discomfort were higher during lipid than saline infusion. In the patients, the sensation of fullness occurred at lower volumes during lipid infusion, whereas discomfort occurred at similar volumes but lower intragastric pressures. Most patients experienced nausea and bloating and three patients vomited during lipid infusion, but remained asymptomatic during saline infusion. Controls reported no symptoms during either infusion. CONCLUSION: Dyspeptic patients have increased sensitivity to both gastric distension and intraduodenal lipid. In contrast to controls, lipid sensitizes their stomachs to distension.     

RhG-CSF-mobilized CD34+ peripheral blood progenitors are myeloperoxidase-negative and noncycling irrespective of CD33 or CD13 coexpression

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to differentiate between the catabolic effects of interleukin-1 (IL-1) when infused into the central nervous system or into the periphery. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: After injury and infection, IL-1 has been found in the central nervous system. Chronic intracerebrovascular infusion of IL-1 produces protein catabolism, anorexia, and fever. However, IL-1 may act directly on liver and bone marrow to elicit metabolic responses. Although IL-1 is thought to be involved in a number of metabolic responses associated with injury-inflammation, the sites of action are unclear. METHODS: Rats were implanted with chronic infusion pumps and received diluent or three doses of IL-1 infused subcutaneously for 6 days, and a variety of response variables were measured. In a second study, doses were adjusted so that similar systemic catabolic responses were obtained from peripheral and intracerebroventricular infusion of IL-1. The acute-phase responses then were compared in the two groups of animals receiving IL-1 by different routes. RESULT: Subcutaneously infused IL-1 elicited catabolic responses in a dose-response manner. Similar catabolic responses were achieved by infusing one tenth of the dose of IL-1 given subcutaneously into the central nervous system. Although similar systemic responses (protein catabolism, anorexia, fever, and weight loss) were observed with both routes of infusion, the subcutaneous infusion produced a much greater lymphocytosis, elevation in acute-phase reactants, and fall in serum iron and albumin. CONCLUSIONS: The IL-1 appears to have different effects depending on the site of production and site of action. Regionalization of signal proteins such as IL-1 should be taken into consideration when devising specific anticytokine treatment strategies.     

Spektralphotometrische Bestimmung des Coffeins in coffeinhaltigem und coffeinfreiem Kaffee

Zusammenfassung Das Coffein, das durch Verdampfung des Chloroforms aus dem chloroformhaltigen Extrakt der mit MgO vorbehandelten und durch MgO und Hilfsfilter ehromatographisch gereinigten wäßrigen Auszügen vom coffeinfreien Rohkaffee, rein gewonnen ist, wird bei 272 mµ in einem Spektralphotometer gemessen. Die kleinste Menge, die noch in 100 g coffeinfreiem Rohkaffee bestimmt werden kann, beträgt 0,04 g mit einer Standardabweichung von ± 0,008 g. Die Analysendauer beträgt etwa 90 min.     

INDIGO-DataCloud: a Platform to Facilitate Seamless Access to E-Infrastructures

This paper describes the achievements of the H2020 project INDIGO-DataCloud. The project has provided e-infrastructures with tools, applications and cloud framework enhancements to manage the demanding requirements of scientific communities, either locally or through enhanced interfaces. The middleware developed allows to federate hybrid resources, to easily write, port and run scientific applications to the cloud. In particular, we have extended existing PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions, allowing public and private e-infrastructures, including those provided by EGI, EUDAT, and Helix Nebula, to integrate their existing services and make them available through AAI services compliant with GEANT interfederation policies, thus guaranteeing transparency and trust in the provisioning of such services. Our middleware facilitates the execution of applications using containers on Cloud and Grid based infrastructures, as well as on HPC clusters. Our developments are freely downloadable as open source components, and are already being integrated into many scientific applications.     

Integration of biofuels intermediates production and nutrients recycling in the processing of a marine algae

The cost‐effective production of liquid biofuels from microalgae is limited by several factors such as recovery of the lipid fractions as well as nutrients management. Flash hydrolysis, a rapid hydrothermal process, has been successfully applied to fractionate the microalgal biomass into solid biofuels intermediates while recovering a large amount of the nutrients in the aqueous phase (hydrolyzate) in a continuous flow reactor. The aim of the work is to enhance the quality of a high‐ash containing marine algae Nannochloropsis gaditana as biofuel feedstock while recycling nutrients directly for algae cultivation. Characterization of products demonstrated an increase in extractable lipids from 33.5 to 65.5 wt % (dry basis) while retaining the same fatty acid methyl ester profile, in addition to diminution of more than 70 wt % of ash compared to raw microalgae. Moreover, the hydrolyzate was directly used to grow a microalga of the same genus. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1494–1502, 2017     

Relationship between cobalt,copper and zinc content of soils and vegetables

The relationship between cobalt, copper and zinc content of soils and the vegetables grown in them is discussed. Samples of soil and edible vegetables were taken from 15 different sites, corresponding to four agricultural areas exposed to different degrees of environmental pollution: high industrial and traffic, high industrial and urban, and low industrial and urban pollution. Elements were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Variance analysis (ANOVA) was applied to cobalt, copper and zinc content of vegetables and soils in order to detect significant differences among soils of different areas and the vegetables grown there. The possible relationship between the heavy metal content of soils (total and extractable) and of the vegetables grown in them was estimated by the correlation coefficient value. Statistically significant correlations were observed between the total and extractable cobalt content of soils and of roots and bulbs (p < 0.1) and between the total copper content of soils and of inflorescences (p < 0.05). In the case of zinc no correlation was found.