Valorization of chestnut shells for hydrogen production by Clostridium butyricum fermentation

Chestnut shell s (CS) is an agronomic waste generated from the peeling process of the chestnut fruit. It is well-known that the extract of CS contains high amounts of tannins, which are polyphenolic antioxidants1, but this agronomic residue also contains about 36% sugars in form of polysaccharides, and no utilization of chestnut shells as potential source of fermentable sugars has been considered so far. As consequence, this waste represents an interesting exploitable source for monosaccharides production, and in this study we evaluated the potential of biohydrogen production from CS hydrolyzate

Early MicroRNA expression profile as a prognostic biomarker for the development of pelvic inflammatory disease in a mouse model of chlamydial genital infection

It is not currently possible to predict the probability of whether a woman with a chlamydial genital infection will develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). To determine if specific biomarkers may be associated with distinct chlamydial pathotypes, we utilized two Chlamydia muridarum variants (C. muridarum Var001 [CmVar001] and CmVar004) that differ in their abilities to elicit upper genital tract pathology in a mouse model. CmVar004 has a lower growth rate in vitro and induces pathology in only 20% of C57BL/6 mouse oviducts versus 83.3% of oviducts in CmVar001-infected mice. To determine if chemokine and cytokine production within 24 h of infection is associated with the outcome of pathology, levels of 15 chemokines and cytokines were measured. CmVar004 infection induced significantly lower levels of CXCL1, CXCL2, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and CCL2 in comparison to CmVar001 infection with similar rRNA (rs16) levels for Chlamydiae. A combination of microRNA (miRNA) sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of 134 inflammation-related miRNAs was performed 24 h postinfection to determine if the chemokine/cytokine responses would also be reflected in miRNA expression profiles. Interestingly, 12 miRNAs (miR-135a-5p, miR298-5p, miR142-3p, miR223-3p, miR299a-3p, miR147-3p, miR105, miR325-3p, miR132-3p, miR142-5p, miR155-5p, and miR-410-3p) were overexpressed during CmVar004 infection compared to CmVar001 infection, inversely correlating with the respective chemokine/cytokine responses. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that early biomarkers elicited in the host can differentiate between two pathological variants of chlamydiae and be predictive of upper tract disease. © 2014 Yeruva et al

Calibration and performance tests of the Very-Front-End electronics for the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter

The Very-Front-End electronics processing signals from photodetectors of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter have been put through an extensive test programme to guarantee functionality and reliability. The final characteristics of the VFE boards designed for the calorimeter barrel and endcaps are presented. The results, which have been also verified during test beam at CERN, confirm the high quality of the boards production and show that the CMS detector specifications are reached

The influence of the accessory genome on bacterial pathogen evolution

Bacterial pathogens exhibit significant variation in their genomic content of virulence factors. This reflects the abundance of strategies pathogens evolved to infect host organisms by suppressing host immunity. Molecular arms-races have been a strong driving force for the evolution of pathogenicity, with pathogens often encoding overlapping or redundant functions, such as type III protein secretion effectors and hosts encoding ever more sophisticated immune systems. The pathogens’ frequent exposure to other microbes, either in their host or in the environment, provides opportunities for the acquisition or interchange of mobile genetic elements. These DNA elements accessorise the core genome and can play major roles in shaping genome structure and altering the complement of virulence factors. Here, we review the different mobile genetic elements focusing on the more recent discoveries and highlighting their role in shaping bacterial pathogen evolution

Overview of Atopic Dermatitis in Different Ethnic Groups

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease with a high prevalence worldwide, including countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and in different ethnic groups. In recent years, more attention has been placed on the heterogeneity of AD associated with multiple factors, including a patient’s ethnic background, resulting in an increasing body of clinical, genetic, epidemiologic, and immune-phenotypic evidence that delineates differences in AD among racial groups. Filaggrin (FLG) mutations, the strongest genetic risk factor for the development of AD, are detected in up to 50% of European and 27% of Asian AD patients, but very rarely in Africans. Th2 hyperactivation is a common attribute of all ethnic groups, though the Asian endotype of AD is also characterized by an increased Th17-mediated signal, whereas African Americans show a strong Th2/Th22 signature and an absence of Th1/Th17 skewing. In addition, the ethnic heterogeneity of AD may hold important therapeutic implications as a patient’s genetic predisposition may affect treatment response and, thereby, a tailored strategy that better targets the dominant immunologic pathways in each ethnic subgroup may be envisaged. Nevertheless, white patients with AD represent the largest ethnicity enrolled and tested in clinical trials and the most treated in a real-world setting, limiting investigations about safety and efficacy across different ethnicities. The purpose of this review is to describe the heterogeneity in the pathophysiology of AD across ethnicities and its potential therapeutic implications

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Easy preparation of liposome@pda microspheres for fast and highly efficient removal of methylene blue from water

Mussel-inspired chemistry was usefully exploited here with the aim of developing a high-efficiency, environmentally friendly material for water remediation. A micro-structured material based on polydopamine (PDA) was obtained by using liposomes as templating agents and was used for the first time as an adsorbent material for the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solutions. Phospholipid liposomes were made by extrusion and coated with PDA by self-polymerization of dopamine under simple and mild conditions. The obtained Liposome@PDA microspheres were characterized by DLS and Zeta potential analysis, TEM microscopy, and FTIR spectroscopy. The effects of pH, temperature, MB concentration, amount of Liposome@PDA, and contact time on the adsorption process were investigated. Results showed that the highest adsorption capacity was obtained in weakly alkaline conditions (pH = 8.0) and that it could reach up to 395.4 mg g−1 at 298 K. In addition, adsorption kinetics showed that the adsorption behavior fits a pseudo-second-order kinetic model well. The equilibrium adsorption data, instead, were well described by Langmuir isotherm. Thermodynamic analysis demonstrated that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous (∆G0 = −12.55 kJ mol−1, ∆H0 = 13.37 kJ mol−1 ) in the investigated experimental conditions. Finally, the applicability of Liposome@PDA microspheres to model wastewater and the excellent reusability after regeneration by removing MB were demonstrated

Existence and uniqueness for stochastic 2D Euler flows with bounded vorticity

The strong existence and the pathwise uniqueness of solutions with (Formula presented.) -vorticity of the 2D stochastic Euler equations are proved. The noise is multiplicative and it involves the first derivatives. A Lagrangian approach is implemented, where a stochastic flow solving a nonlinear flow equation is constructed. The stability under regularizations is also proved

Cystic echinococcosis in water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis)

An epidemiological and molecular survey of cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus in the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) of the Italian Mediterranean breed was carried out in the Campania region of southern Italy. Out of a total of 799 water buffaloes examined at slaughterhouses, 80 (10.0%) were found infected. The molecular study was performed on 58 hydatid cysts in order to determine the E. granulosus strain(s) present in this host. A region of cytocrome c oxydase 1 gene (CO1) was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and the PCR products were then purified and sequenced. DNA amplification of the partial CO1 gene gave a 446 bp fragment for all isolates examined. After sequencing, a region of 419 bp was identified for each sample. Thirty-two isolates were identified as the common sheep strain G1, 15 as the buffalo strain G3, 3 as the Tasmanian sheep strain G2, and 3 as the G1 c genotype (GenBank AF458873). In addition, 5 isolates presented 99% identity with the G2 genotype (Tasmanian sheep strain)