Metronidazole resistant trichomoniasis successfully treated with paromomycin

Thoracic infection by anaerobes are uncommon diseases and often presents difficulty in diagnosis. We report a case of thoracic infection due to Fusobacterium Nucleatum. A 60-year old man presented a lesion infiltrating from the lung to the thoracic wall. Fusobacterium Nucleatum was isolated on pus collected. Treatment by penicillin, metronidazole combined with surgical drainage was highly effective.     

Do individual factors matter? A survey of scientists’ patenting in Portuguese public research organisations

This paper addresses scientists’ behaviour regarding the patenting of knowledge produced in universities and other public sector research organisations (PSROs). Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in patenting and licensing activities by PSROs. We argue that the whole process depends to a certain extent on scientists’ willingness to disclose their inventions. Given this assumption, we conduct research into individual behaviour in order to understand scientists’ views concerning the patenting of their research results. Data from a questionnaire survey of Portuguese researchers from nine PSROs in life sciences and biotechnology is presented and analysed and complemented with in-depth interviews. The results reveal that overall the scientists surveyed show a low propensity to become involved in patenting and licensing activities, despite the fact that the majority had no “ethical” objections to the disclosure of their inventions and the commercial exploitation of these. Perceptions about the impacts of these activities on certain fundamental aspects of knowledge production and dissemination are however divergent. This may account for the low participation levels. Furthermore, most scientists perceived the personal benefits deriving from this type of activity to be low. Similarly, the majority also believed that there are many difficulties associated with the patenting process and that they receive limited support from their organisations, which lack the proper competences and structures to assist with patenting and licensing.     

Thermodynamic calculations for Nb-containing high-speed steels and white-cast-iron alloys

Thermodynamical equilibria have been calculated for a wide variety of high-speed steel compositions belonging to the multicomponent system Fe-C-W-Mo-V-Cr-Nb as well as for two series of white-cast-iron alloys containing niobium. Some temperature-concentration diagrams for both classes of alloys are presented and calculated quantities (melting and transformation temperatures, amounts and compositions of phases) are compared with experimental data. Good agreement between calculated and experimental information has been obtained, with the exception of the MC phase compositions and transformation temperatures for white-cast-iron alloys with high carbon and chromium contents. These differences can, however, be satisfactorily explained by plausible kinetic effects.     

The Role of Network Topologies in the Optical Core of IP-over-WDM Networks with Static Wavelength Routing

In this paper, we present a performance analysis of network topologies for the optical core of IP-over-WDM networks with static wavelength routing. The performance analysis is focused on regular degree four topologies, and, for comparison purposes, degree three topologies are also considered. It is shown that the increase of the nodal degree from three (degree three topology with smallest diameter) to four (degree four topology with smallest diameter) improves the network performance if a larger number of wavelengths per link is available. However, the influence of wavelength interchange on the nodal degree gain is small. The performance of regular degree four topologies with smallest diameter is also compared with the performance of mesh–torus topologies (which are also degree four topologies), and it is shown that the blocking probability of degree four topologies with smallest diameter is about two orders of magnitude lower than the blocking probability of mesh–torus topologies. It is also presented a performance comparison of WDM-based networks with nodal degrees ranging from two to five and it is shown that the increase of the nodal degree from two to three leads to high nodal degree gains, while de increase of the nodal degree from four to five leads to low nodal degree gains. These results show that degree three and degree four topologies are very attractive for use in the optical core of IP-over-WDM networks.     

Paste Residence Time in a Spouted Bed Dryer. III: Effect of Paste Properties and Quality Interactions

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of paste properties on residence time during drying in a spouted bed dryer with inert bodies. The effect of paste solids content, surface tension, and viscosity on the residence time distribution and the mean residence times were studied using factorial experimental designs. The inert bodies used were glass and polyethylene beads. The mean residence times varied from 13.6 to 16.3 and 12.2 to 17.7 min for drying on glass and polyethylene beads, respectively. The analysis of variance showed that mean residence times significantly depended on solids content and surface tension for glass beads and also on viscosity for polyethylene beads. The residence time distributions for all conditions studied fitted well to the perfect mixing cell when applying the continuous stirred vessels in series model analysis. The powder density, flowability, and particle size depended on paste properties and inert type.     

Simultaneous HPLC quantification of total cholesterol,tocopherols and β-carotene in Barrosã-PDO veal

A simple, rapid and sensitive procedure for the simultaneous determination of total cholesterol, tocopherols and β-carotene in meat is described. The method involves a direct saponification of the meat, a single n-hexane extraction and the analysis of the extracted compounds by normal-phase HPLC, using fluorescence (tocopherols) and UV–Vis photodiode array (cholesterol and β-carotene) detections in tandem. Rates of recovery of spiked meat samples were 93% for cholesterol, 83–86% for (α-, β- and -γ) tocopherols and 89% for β-carotene. Repeatabilities were high (CV < 6%) for all determined compounds, except for δ-tocopherol. This tocopherol, which is not usually present in meat, showed a much lower recovery percentage (73%) and repeatability (12.8%). This methodology was applied for the quantification of total cholesterol, tocopherols and β-carotene in three muscles (longissimus thoracis, longissimus lumborum and semitendinosus) of the Portuguese traditional Barrosã-PDO veal, obtained from autochthonous calves fed extensively during summer (with the least abundant green pastures) and slaughtered in early autumn (October). Barrosã-PDO veal showed median contents of total cholesterol (0.50–0.56 mg/g) and, depending on the analysed muscle, moderate to high contents of α-tocopherol (3.3–3.9 μg/g) and β-carotene (0.07–0.09 μg/g), suggesting an high sensorial and hygienic quality.     

Nisin expression production from Lactococcus lactis in milk whey medium

BACKGROUND: Nisin is a commercially available bacteriocin produced by Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 and used as a natural agent in the biopreservation of food. In the current investigation, milk whey, a byproduct from dairy industries was used as a fermentation substrate for the production of nisin. Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 was developed in a rotary shaker (30 °C/36 h/100 rpm) using two different media with milk whey (i) without filtration, pH 6.8, adjusted with NaOH 2 mol L^?1 and without pH adjustment, both autoclaved at 121 °C for 30 min, and (ii) filtrated (1.20 µm and 0.22 µm membrane filter). These cultures were transferred five times using 5 mL aliquots of broth culture for every new volume of the respective media. RESULTS: The results showed that culture media composed of milk whey without filtration supplied L. lactis its adaptation needs better than filtrated milk whey. Nisin titers, in milk whey without filtration (pH adjusted), was 11120.13 mg L^?1 in the second transfer, and up to 1628‐fold higher than the filtrated milk whey, 6.83 mg.L^?1 obtained in the first^t transfer. CONCLUSIONS: Biological processing of milk byproducts (milk whey) can be considered a profitable alternative, generating high‐value bioproducts and contributing to decreasing river disposals by dairy industries. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Induction of activity and deactivation of Fe, Mn-promoted sulfated zirconia catalysts

The isomerization of n-butane on sulfated zirconia catalysts promoted by the addition of Fe and Mn ions has been studied. The evolution of the catalytic activity of these materials as a function of time on stream exhibits a typical shape containing an induction period during which the activity increases. The induction period is followed by a rapid deactivation and then a slower deactivation. The shape of the conversion—time curves contains important information about the way these catalyst operate. Slight changes in the preparation and pretreatment of the catalysts result in changes in the overall activity and shape of the conversion—time curves. The results of this study suggest that the induction period is due to the formation and accumulation of reaction intermediates on the surface. These intermediates participate in the reaction as part of an inter-molecular mechanism. The n-butane molar fraction, the presence of olefins or hydrogen in the feed, and the reaction temperature strongly affect the induction period.

A simple mathematical model that successfully describes the behavior of the conversion—time curves has been developed. This model is consistent with the existence of two types of sites with different reactivity and stability. One type is responsible for most of the activity observed during the first few minutes on stream, but it is rapidly deactivated. This type of sites is easily deactivated by simple exposure to hydrogen, so it is consistent with an oxidized species recently proposed. The second type of sites is more resistant to deactivation.     

Performance of Green Solvents in the Extraction of Sunflower Oil from Enzyme-Treated Collets

The main goal of this work is to evaluate the extraction of sunflower oil from enzyme-treated collets using ethanol and isopropanol (IPA) as solvents. The sunflower collets are pretreated with the multienzyme complex Viscozyme L prior to solvent extraction by the Soxhlet method. The influence of the moisture content of the collets, pretreatment, processing time, and solvent type on the amount of total extracted material and the oil extraction efficiency is studied. Some quality parameters such as phospholipid content of the oil and chlorogenic acid content of the residual meal are also analyzed. At low moisture content (7%) the solvents exhibit similar oil extraction ability (98–99%), but with increasing moisture the extraction efficiency of ethanol decreases to about 85%, while no significant differences are observed for IPA. The enzymatic treatment increases the extraction efficiency for all times, especially for ethanol. It is observed that IPA is more efficient in the extraction compared to ethanol, and the amount of nonlipid material is reduced by ≈70%. In addition, the oil extracted with IPA have lower phospholipid content and the residual meal presents a higher chlorogenic acid content. Practical Applications:This work would contribute toward the use of green solvents in the extraction of sunflower oil from collets. Ethanol and isopropanol, used as solvents, present attractive advantages, including low toxicity, good operational security, as well as being obtained from a renewable source. The obtained data provide up-to-date information on the use of these alcohols in the extraction of sunflower oil from collets and the influence of operating conditions, such as moisture content, enzymatic pretreatment of the collets, and the extraction time. Information about oil and meal quality is also reported.