Search

The present work is a survey on aircraft hybrid electric propulsion (HEP) that aims to present state-of-the-art technologies and future tendencies in the following areas: air transport market, hybrid demonstrators, HEP topologies applications, aircraft design, electrical systems for aircraft, energy storage, aircraft internal combustion engines, and management and control strategies. Several changes on aircraft propulsion will occur in the next 30 years, following the aircraft market demand and environmental regulations. Two commercial areas are in evolution, electrical urban air mobility (UAM) and hybrid-electric regional aircraft. The first one is expected to come into service in the next 10 years with small devices. The last one will gradually come into service, starting with small aircraft according to developments in energy storage, fuel cells, aircraft design and hybrid architectures integration. All-electric architecture seems to be more adapted to UAM. Turbo-electric hybrid architecture combined with distributed propulsion and boundary layer ingestion seems to have more success for regional aircraft, attaining environmental goals for 2030 and 2050. Computational models supported by powerful simulation tools will be a key to support research and aircraft HEP design in the coming years. Brazilian research in these challenging areas is in the beginning, and a multidisciplinary collaboration will be critical for success in the next few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Environmental impact evaluation in the food sector is a key topic, due to both stricter legislations and higher consumer awareness towards sustainable choices. The case of chocolate is a remarkable example, owing to the increasing demand and the complex production process from cocoa beans to final bars. The present study aims at assessing the environmental impacts related to three chocolate types (dark, milk and white) through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Methods: Consistent with food Product Category Rules (PCRs) and previous LCA literature, the study follows a cradle to grave approach. Among different raw material productions, it focuses above all on cocoa farming assuming three possible producer countries (i.e. Ghana, Ecuador and Indonesia), so that the influence of specific weather conditions and soil properties is underlined. Since the manufacturing step is supposed in the North Italian factory, different transport distances are also taken into account. Moreover, the work focuses on the possible use of several packaging materials and following disposal issues. In view of the open discussion about the most suitable functional unit in food sector, mass and energy amount approaches are compared. Results and discussion: Along chocolate supply chain, different phases are evaluated according to LCA methodology. Among analyzed producer countries: Indonesia monoculture case results to be the most impacting situation, due to an intensive use of agrochemicals; pesticides give a wide contribution in Ecuador, whereas Ghana is penalized by the highest water consumption. The transport of beans to manufacturing plant influences mostly the GWP, owing to long travelled distances. Considering the whole production process, cocoa derivatives and milk powder are the main contributors to every impact category. From packaging point of view, the best solution is the use of a single polypropylene layer. A sensitivity analysis is performed to check the validity of different allocation procedures: both mass and energy content allocations lead to similar results. Conclusions: Through LCA methodology, the life cycle of dark, milk and white chocolate is compared. The study assesses different potential environmental impacts, assuming mass and energy content as possible functional units and references for allocation procedures. For all combinations of functional units and allocation rules, dark chocolate globally presents the best environmental performance, whereas the other two types have similar environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proliferation of ultrahigh-speed mobile networks and internet-connected devices, along with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)1, the world is generating exponentially increasing amounts of data that need to be processed in a fast and efficient way. Highly parallelized, fast and scalable hardware is therefore becoming progressively more important2. Here we demonstrate a computationally specific integrated photonic hardware accelerator (tensor core) that is capable of operating at speeds of trillions of multiply-accumulate operations per second (1012 MAC operations per second or tera-MACs per second). The tensor core can be considered as the optical analogue of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). It achieves parallelized photonic in-memory computing using phase-change-material memory arrays and photonic chip-based optical frequency combs (soliton microcombs3). The computation is reduced to measuring the optical transmission of reconfigurable and non-resonant passive components and can operate at a bandwidth exceeding 14 gigahertz, limited only by the speed of the modulators and photodetectors. Given recent advances in hybrid integration of soliton microcombs at microwave line rates3–5, ultralow-loss silicon nitride waveguides6,7, and high-speed on-chip detectors and modulators, our approach provides a path towards full complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) wafer-scale integration of the photonic tensor core. Although we focus on convolutional processing, more generally our results indicate the potential of integrated photonics for parallel, fast, and efficient computational hardware in data-heavy AI applications such as autonomous driving, live video processing, and next-generation cloud computing services.An integrated photonic processor, based on phase-change-material memory arrays and chip-based optical frequency combs, which can operate at speeds of trillions of multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations per second, is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance-based techniques in detecting outliers appears to be an effective tool in both univariate and multivariate data. However, the effectiveness of the same is yet to be firmly established in categorical data as it poses challenges due to polarization of cell frequencies. The purpose of this paper is to evolve a new distance-based measure to detect outliers in two-dimensional contingency tables. The new distance measure based on pivotal element is evaluated through a comparison with other suitable distance measures from the literature for its performance. The consistency of the four distance measures is examined through a simulation study followed by the application to real datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Stella Polare Expedition" collection represents the rocks collected during the attempt to reach the North Pole in the winter of 1899–1900 by the Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, better known as "Duca degli Abruzzi". The collection is currently kept on loan at the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences in Turin and belongs to the series of mineralogical-lithological collections owned by the University of Turin. It is unique from both the historical and the scientific points of view. It mainly consists of effusive magmatic rock samples, such as tholeiitic basalts, basaltic andesites and sub-intrusive rocks, such as dolerites. In the collection are also present sedimentary rocks (i.e. sandstone, siltite, jasper), high-grade metamorphic rocks (i.e. granulite) and a good number of mineralizations (i.e. quartz, opal, calcedony, calcite and zeolite), probably included within the effusive magmatic rocks in the form of veins or amygdales. From the geochemical point of view, it was possible to classify volcanic rocks as effusive products belonging to the sub-alkaline subduction-related tholeiitic series, which in turn can be distinguished into two main types, corresponding to basalts and basaltic andesites. Furthermore, the dolerites show geochemical features compatible with an oceanic environment analogous to Ocean Island Basalts, not or scarcely contaminated by the continental crust, in agreement with the geographic and geological position of the Franz Josef Land, located at the border of the Eurasian continental shelf and close to the Nansen depression ocean floor. The rediscovery and study of this collection have made it possible to enhance historically, and to deepen, with a scientific approach, the study of materials that would have been difficult to retrieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the epidemiological significance of Pneumocystis detection in a lung tissue sample of non-immunosuppressed individuals, we examined sampling procedures, laboratory methodology, and patient characteristics of autopsy series reported in the literature. Number of tissue specimens, DNA-extraction procedures, age and underlying diagnosis highly influence yield and are critical to understand yield differences of Pneumocystis among reports of pulmonary colonization in immunocompetent individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression of CD64 in neutrophils (nCD64) has shown utility in the diagnosis of sepsis. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of nCD64 expression to identify patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) at risk of a poor outcome. A prospective study of nCD64 expression (determined by flow cytometry) in patients with CAP was performed. The sensitivity/specificity of nCD64 in predicting poor outcome [defined as intensive care unit (ICU) admission and/or clinical deterioration after arrival at the emergency department] was calculated. Eighty-three adults with CAP were included; 14.5 % had septic shock, 19.3 % required ICU admission, and 10.8 % presented clinical deterioration after admission. The mean of the median fluorescence intensity (MFI) of nCD64 expression was 1140 (±1097). Patients with nCD64 expression ≥2700 MFI had more clinical deterioration (36.4 vs. 7.2 %, p = 0.015) and more ICU admission (45.5 vs. 14.5 %, p = 0.028). To identify clinical deterioration and ICU admission, nCD64 expression showed a sensitivity of 44.4 and 33.3 % and a specificity of 90.1 and 90.8 %, respectively. The addition of nCD64 expression to the Pneumonia Severity Index and CURB-65 severity scores did not improve the accuracy of predicting these outcomes. Although nCD64 expression is associated with an increased risk of ICU admission or clinical deterioration after admission, its accuracy in predicting these poor outcomes is modest and does not significantly improve the predictive ability of the PSI and CURB-65 severity scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess the main clinical predictors and microbiological features of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment. This work is a retrospective analysis over one year from September 2010 to September 2011. Patients' risk factors, causes of admission, comorbidities and respiratory specimens collected in six Italian ICUs were reviewed. Incidence and case fatality rate of VAP were evaluated. After stratification for VAP development, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the impact of patients' conditions on the onset of this infection. A total of 1,647 ICU patients (pts) were considered. Overall, 115 patients (6.9 %) experienced at least one episode of VAP. The incidence rate for VAP was 5.82/1,000 pts-days, with a case fatality rate of 44.3 %. Multivariate analysis showed that admission for neurological disorders (aIRR 4.12, CI 1.24-13.68, p = 0.02) and emergency referral to ICU from other hospitals (aIRR 2.11, CI 1.03-4.31, p = 0.04) were associated with higher risk of VAP, whereas a tendency to a higher risk of infection was detected for admission due to respiratory disease, cardiac disease, trauma and for having obesity or renal failure. A total of 372 microbiological isolates from respiratory specimens were collected in VAP patients. The most common species were Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, showing high resistance rates to carbapenems. Neurological disorders and emergency referral at the admission into the ICU are significantly associated with the onset of VAP. A high incidence of multi-drug resistant Gram- species was detected in the respiratory specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ependymomas are common childhood brain tumours that occur throughout the nervous system, but are most common in the paediatric hindbrain. Current standard therapy comprises surgery and radiation, but not cytotoxic chemotherapy as it does not further increase survival. Whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing of 47 hindbrain ependymomas reveals an extremely low mutation rate, and zero significant recurrent somatic single nucleotide variants. Although devoid of recurrent single nucleotide variants and focal copy number aberrations, poor-prognosis hindbrain ependymomas exhibit a CpG island methylator phenotype. Transcriptional silencing driven by CpG methylation converges exclusively on targets of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 which represses expression of differentiation genes through trimethylation of H3K27. CpG island methylator phenotype-positive hindbrain ependymomas are responsive to clinical drugs that target either DNA or H3K27 methylation both in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that epigenetic modifiers are the first rational therapeutic candidates for this deadly malignancy, which is epigenetically deregulated but genetically bland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three different strains of filamentous cyanobacteria, Tychonema, Limnothrix, and Pseudoanabaena, were selected among the fastest growing taxa collected in the salt marshes of Venice Lagoon and were grown in laboratory for growth rate determination and biochemical characterization of chlorophyll- a, total proteins, total carbohydrates, and exopolysaccharides. Experiments were carried out both in liquid medium and two different substrates: artificial plant protection fabric and ground indigenous shells. Cyanobacterial behavior was recorded to better understand colonization of natural and new artificial marshes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic annotation is at the core of Semantic Web technology: it bridges the gap between legacy non-semantic web resource descriptions and their elicited, formally specified conceptualization, converting syntactic structures into knowledge structures, i.e., ontologies. Most existing approaches and tools are designed to deal with manual or semi-/automatic semantic annotation that exploits available ontologies through the pattern-based discovery of concepts. This work aims to generate the automatic semantic annotation of web resources, without any prefixed ontological support. The novelty of our approach is that, starting from web resources, content with a high-level of abstraction is obtained: concepts, connections between concepts, and instance-population are identified and arranged into an ex-novo ontology. The framework is designed to process resources from different sources (textual information, images, etc.) and generate an ontology-based annotation. A data-driven analysis reveals the data and their intrinsic relationships (in the form of triples) extracted from the resource content. On the basis of the discovered semantics, corresponding concepts and properties are modeled, allowing an ad hoc ontology to be built through an OWL-based coding annotation. The benefit of this approach is the generation of knowledge structured in a quite automatic way (i.e., the human support is restricted to the configuration of some parameters). The approach exploits a fuzzy extension of the mathematical modeling of Formal Concept Analysis and Relational Concept Analysis to generate the ontological structure of data resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrared thermography has been employed to carry out a detailed convective heat transfer measurements at Re = 20,000 in a two-pass square channel both for the static case (absence of channel rotation) and for the rotating case ( Ro = 0.3). At the same time, the main and secondary flow fields have been measured by means of particle image velocimetry with the aim to investigate how the flow behavior affects the local distributions of the convective heat transfer coefficient for the two cases. The normal-to-wall velocity component ( w) and the turbulent kinetic energy, both measured close to the heat exchanging wall, have been used to formulate an empirical heat transfer correlation within an attempt to identify the role performed by these two quantities on the convective heat transfer coefficient distributions. The latter ones have been reported in terms of normalized Nusselt number ( Nu/Nu*) maps, where Nu* is the Nusselt number evaluated with the classical Dittus-Bölter correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sinonasal infection is a frequent complication in patients with haematological malignancies, and may represent a challenge in terms of differential diagnosis between a bacterial or fungal infective process and tumour localization. A timely and correct diagnosis in these patients is critical and, therefore, may require consultation of specialists outside of haematology; an incorrect diagnosis which underestimates the seriousness of the infection can be fatal. Symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia resulting from direct compression or perineural invasion from malignancy is not uncommon in the literature. However, trigeminal neuralgia as an isolated symptom at the onset of a bacterial or invasive fungal sinusitis is rare and risks going unnoticed. The authors herein describe three cases of patients affected by acute myeloid leukaemia or lymphoma in which an invasive fungal sinusitis appeared at the onset as an isolated trigeminal neuralgia, with pain located along the distribution area of the second branch of the trigeminal nerve. Only after referring these patients to a neurologist for a host of neurological exams it was possible to confirm a diagnosis of secondary maxillary sinus fungal involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human rotaviruses (HRVs) represent a major cause of acute gastroenteritis in children worldwide. It is estimated that they are responsible for a large number of diarrhea-associated hospitalizations in childhood each year. In Italy, limited data are available on the patterns of distribution of HRV G and P types. We report here the results of 2 years of rotavirus strain surveillance among children with severe gastroenteritis diagnosed in the town of Portici, Campania, southern Italy. Methods: A total of 421 stool specimens from children between 6 months and 5 years of age and presenting acute diarrhea were collected and tested by routine diagnostic tests for HRV, adenovirus, astrovirus, norovirus, and common bacterial pathogens. Results: The laboratory results showed that 110 of the 225 (26.1%) virus-positive samples contained HRVs. The different G and P rotavirus genotypes were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Among the VP7 genotypes identified, G1 and G2 were predominant, with percentages of 48.2 and 30.9%, respectively. G4, G9, and G10 were detected in a minority of cases. Among the VP4 genotypes, P[8] occurred the most frequently (56.4%), followed by P[4] (31.8%), and only a few P[10] and P[11] at percentages of 1.8 and 0.9%, respectively. Conclusion: Our epidemiological data of HRV strains will contribute to assessing the magnitude of the problem of HRV in the south of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. We retrospectively reviewed data from four patients (3 males and 1 female), mean age 33.5 years old (range: 21-40), with histopathological diagnosis of LCH. All of them presented with symptoms suggestive of endocrine involvement. The main complaint was goiter in two patients and polyuria and polydipsia in three. Before the LCH diagnosis, two patients had unevaluated symptoms of diabetes insipidus (DI) and hypogonadism. The mean time from symptoms onset to diagnosis was 6.25 years (range: 2-13). Histopathological diagnosis was established by total thyroidectomy (TT) biopsy in two patients, skin lesion biopsy in one, and pituitary stalk biopsy in the other. In the two-first patients, surgery was indicated after the fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) showed a false positive result of differentiated thyroid carcinoma and immunohistochemistry was used for diagnosis confirmation. Three cases were treated with chemotherapy; one of them had already received radiation therapy on the hypothalamic-pituitary region, developing post-radiation hypopituitarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the (1) incidence of adverse drug events (ADEs) in 10 emergency department (EDs) of general hospitals in the Regione Campania (southern Italy), (2) rate of ADE-related hospital admissions, (3) drug classes most frequently involved, and (4) the types of ADEs and their frequency. We performed a cohort study of all patients attending the EDs. This study was carried out in two observational periods of 10 days each in 10 EDs. Demographic, clinical, and pharmacological data about all patients admitted to EDs were collected by trained and qualified monitors. Records related to ADEs were analyzed and validated by a specific scientific committee. Of 7,861 ED visits, 96 were ADE-related. The incidence of hospitalization was higher in patients who had taken medication than in patients with a negative drug history (24.9 vs. 16.4%). ADEs were significantly more frequent in women. Patients aged between 60 and 69 years and between 30 and 39 years were significantly more likely to experience an ADE. Serious ADEs were identified in 20 ED visits (20.8% of total sample). Antibiotics, NSAIDs, and agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system were the drugs most often involved in ADEs. In multivariate analyses, the adjusted odds ratio was 3.4 (95% CI: 1.07–2.84) for patients taking NSAIDs, 4.78 (95% CI: 2.26–10.12) for those taking β2-adrenergic-receptor agonists, and 6.20 (95%CI: 2.74–14.06) for those taking β-lactam antibiotics. This study shows that ADEs are an important problem in industrialized countries. Moreover, it shows that ADEs affect hospital admission rates and reinforces the importance of drug-induced disease as a public health problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3-year-old male chamois ( Rupicapra rupicapra) shot during a harvest plan in Piedmont (Italy) presented periocular alopecic and thickened crusty lesions, some of which slightly red in colour. Hair still present was broken and easily removed. Direct microscopic examination of the pathological material collected by skin scraping led to the diagnosis of dermatophytosis, as the hair shafts appeared invaded by unstained spherical spores (arthroconidia). Fungal growth was obtained by culturing hair and crusts on thiamine/inositol enriched Sabouraud’s medium at 37°C. The macro- and microscopic characteristics of the organism were typical of the dermatophyte Trichophyton verrucosum. Wild ruminants are rarely affected by dermatophytosis, whereas in cattle, sheep and goats, infection because of this dermatophyte is quite common. This seems to be the first case of infection by T. verrucosum in chamois. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The toxicity of leather tanning wastewater from a traditional tannery (TT), which is based on vegetable tannin (VT), was compared with wastewater from a tannery combining the use of chromium-based tanning (CT) with VT-based tanning operations. Wastewater samples from a TT and a CT plant as well as from five sewer sampling points were collected in Marrakesh, Morocco, and the concentrations of VT and some selected inorganics were measured. A set of bioassays were used to test wastewater toxicity in sea urchin ( Paracentrotus lividus) embryos and sperm, in Daphnia magna, and in marine microalgae ( Dunaliella tertiolecta). Toxicity end points included: (1) developmental defects, embryonic mortality, sperm fertilization success, and offspring damage in sea urchins; (2) D. magna immobilization; and (3) algal growth rate inhibition. Toxicity tests on TT and CT effluents (TTE and CTE) were run at dilutions ranging from 0.1% to 2% (sea urchins and algae) or up to 12% in D. magna. Parallel bioassays were run on VT extract (VTE) at nominal tannin concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10 mg l–1. The results showed higher toxicity of CTE compared with TTE. CTE toxicity in sea urchins and algae showed concentration-related trends, whereas TTE exerted hormetic effects at levels of 0.1% to 0.2% and toxic effects at levels ≥1%. The same trends were observed for VTE, suggesting a prevailing role of tannin in TTE-associated effects. The moderate wastewater toxicity of VT-based tanneries might prompt interest in the VT tanning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large regions of temperate forest are subject to elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition which can affect soil organic matter dynamics by altering mass loss rates, soil respiration, and dissolved organic matter production. At present there is no general model that links these responses to changes in the organization and operation of microbial decomposer communities. Toward that end, we studied the response of litter and soil microbial communities to high levels of N amendment (30 and 80 kg ha-1 yr-1) in three types of northern temperate forest: sugar maple/basswood (SMBW), sugar maple/red oak (SMRO), and white oak/black oak (WOBO). We measured the activity of extracellular enzymes (EEA) involved directly in the oxidation of lignin and humus (phenol oxidase, peroxidase), and indirectly, through the production of hydrogen peroxide (glucose oxidase, glyoxal oxidase). Community composition was analyzed by extracting and quantifying phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) from soils. Litter EEA responses at SMBW sites diverged from those at oak-bearing sites (SMRO, BOWO), but the changes were not statistically significant. For soil, EEA responses were consistent across forests types: phenol oxidase and peroxidase activities declined as a function of N dose (33-73% and 5-41%, respectively, depending on forest type); glucose oxidase and glyoxal oxidase activities increased (200-400% and 150-300%, respectively, depending on forest type). Principal component analysis (PCA) ordinated forest types and treatment responses along two axes; factor 1 (44% of variance) was associated with phenol oxidase and peroxidase activities, factor 2 (31%) with glucose oxidase. Microbial biomass did not respond to N treatment, but nine of the 23 PLFA that formed >1 mol% of total biomass showed statistically significant treatment responses. PCA ordinated forest types and treatment responses along three axes (36%, 26%, 12% of variance). EEA factors 1 and 2 correlated ne... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tannin from mimosa trees (Acacia sp.) utilized in traditional leather tanning was tested for toxicity in sea urchin (Sphaerechinus granularis and Paracentrotus lividus) embryos and sperm, marine, and freshwater algae (Selenastrum capricornutum and Dunaliella tertiolecta), and Daphnia magna. Based on a two-step tanning procedure used in traditional tanneries, two mimosa tannin preparations, i.e., fresh tannin (FT) and used tannin (UT), were tested as suspensions. The early results in S. granularis embryos showed that UT exerted lower acute toxicity than FT, namely, 1 vs 100 mg/L, to obtain 100% mortality, respectively. Subsequent bioassays were conducted on fresh tannin water extracts (TWE) corresponding to nominal tannin concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 30 mg/L. Developmental toxicity, up to embryonic mortality was exerted by TWE at levels > 1 mg/L, S. granularis being more sensitive than P. lividus embryos/larvae. At the concentration of 0.1 mg/L, the frequencies of larval malformations were significantly lower than in controls. This positive stimulatory effect (currently termed as hormesis) was observed in extended numbers of culture replicates (up to 14) and was significant in the embryo cultures characterized by a relatively poor control quality (with <70% viable larvae in controls), whereas this effect was not observed in good-quality cultures (with ≥ 70% viable larvae in controls). Cytogenetic analysis of S. granularis embryos reared in FT or UT suspensions (1 mg/L to 1 g/L) showed mitotoxic effects (decrease in active mitoses per embryo) in FT-exposed, but not in UT-exposed embryos. Mitotic aberrations were significantly increased by 10 mg/L UT. Sperm fertilization success in both sea urchin species showed an increasing fertilization rate (FR) up to 0.3 mg/L TWE and a dose-related decrease in FR up to 30 mg/L. Again, the offspring of P. lividus sperm exposed to TWE (0.1 and 0.3 mg/L) showed a decrease in larval malformations compared to controls, whereas a dose-related increase in developmental defects was observed in the offspring of P. lividus sperm exposed to higher TWE levels (1 to 30 mg/L). Algal cell growth bioassays in two species (S. capricornutum and D. tertiolecta) also showed a maximum growth at TWE levels ranging from 0.3 to 3 mg/L and a subsequent decline up to 30 mg/L TWE. D. magna bioassays resulted in daphnid immobilization by TWE concentrations ranging from 100 to 300 mg/L. The results demonstrate that tannins utilized in traditional leather tanning industry may raise concern of environmental damage at relatively high concentrations, whereas low-level tannins may result in hormetic effects. The present study also points to the need for bioassay design that should rely on adequate criteria in control quality, allowing to detect both inhibitory and hormetic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oral bioavailability of soil contaminants is measured using in vitro or in vivo techniques. Current efforts in our laboratory are focused on the comparisons of in vitro methods for bioavailability estimation with the presently employed in vivo techniques, such as animal models. We present a comparison of two techniques for oral bioavailability estimation: in vitro dissolution and in vivo rat feeding using a standard reference soil. Lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) were chosen because of the range of concentration in this soil as well as the large historical database of bioavailability values for these metals. Metal solubility was measured using a sequential soil extraction in synthetic analogues of human saliva, gastric and intestinal fluids. The soluble metal was defined as the bioaccessible fraction. Oral bioavailability of Pb and As was measured in Sprague Dawley rats by determining metal levels in the major organs and urine, feces, and blood at 1-, 2-, and 3-day time points. Extractions to determine bioaccessibility yielded a gastric component of 76.1% and 69.4% for Pb and As, respectively, and intestinal components were 10.7% and 65.9%. The oral bioavailability of the standard reference soil was 0.7% and 37.8% for Pb and As, respectively. Bioaccessibility was greater than bioavailability for both metals in both gastrointestinal compartments. Although Pb had the highest soil concentration of the selected metals, it was the least bioavailable, while As was highly available in both the in vitro and in vivo method. These types of data allow for an in vitro–in vivo comparison of a soil whose metal concentrations have been certified and validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of relative oral bioavailability of lead and chromium from pigment materials in both natural and encapsulated forms. The study adopts three materials which are lead carbonate pigment used as a positive control, Chrome Yellow, and Krolor Yellow and young Sprague-Dawley rats treated by gavage daily. Results show that lead from the silica encapsulated lead chromate pigment has less oral bioavailability than unencapsulated lead chromate pigment or lead carbonate.

The herbicide oxadiazon, 2-( tert-butyl)-4-(2,4-dichloro-5-isopropyloxy-phenyl)-δ-1, 3, 4-oxadiazoline 5-one, was fed in a total diet at three dosage levels to groups of dairy cows (0.5, 2.5, and 25 ppm) and to groups of male and laying female quail (20, 80, and 160 ppm) for 28 days. Control animals received basal diet rations. No residue (<5 ppb) was detected in milk or cream after three days withdrawal from fortified feed. The maximum plateau reached in milk was 83.8 ppb at the highest dosage fed. Tissues of cows sacrificed on the 12th day of withdrawal showed no residue (<20 ppb). Birds were sacrificed at weekly intervals during acclimation, intake, and withdrawal periods. Eggs were collected at the same intervals. Tissues were free of oxadiazon residue (<40 ppb) within two to seven days of returning the quail to the basal ration, and the eggs were residue-free within seven to fourteen days. The maximum residue found in adipose tissue of quail and their fresh eggs was 3100 ppb and 5400 ppb, respectively at the greatly exaggerated dosage of 160 ppm in the diet. A comprehensive analytical methodology, including liquid-liquid partition, absorption chomatography and electron-capture gas chromatography will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural analogues of syringomycin and syringotoxin were produced by fermentation, characterized by FAB-MS and amino acid analysis and compared to the parent compounds in the antibiosis test against Rhodotorula pilimanae. The C-terminal residue was shown to be important for the activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03216-9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study which evaluated the kinetic behaviour of propofol in calves undergoing abdominal surgery for uncomplicated umbilical hernia. Researchers studied five three to seven-month-old Holstein-Friesian calves with umbilical hernia. Researchers concluded that the high individual variability observed in propofol concentrations may be attributable to the fact that animals were affected by spontaneous disease and of different age and weight.

Eastern cottontail ( Sylvilagus floridanus, fam. Leporidae) has previously been shown to be a potential healthy carrier of dermatophyte fungi both geophilic ( Microsporum gypseum, M. cookei, Trichophyton ajelloi, T. terrestre) and zoophilic ( M. canis, T. mentagrophytes). In this communication, the first case, to the best of our knowledge, of a symptomatic dermatophyte infection in S. floridanus is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several isolates of Candida albicans were tested for production of chlamydoconidia and metabolic changes when grown on several different solid and liquid media. A liquid medium, consisting solely of sterilized skimmed milk and a solid medium containing processed cheese stimulated more rapid and greater production of chlamydoconidia than the corn meal agar and the other media tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case of a rare association between acne conglobata and ankylosing spondylarthritis B27 negative which occurred in a young man. The pathogenetic relationship of the association is not certain, although some researchers suggest that the onset of ankylosing spondylarthritis can result from cutaneous disease. Despite the long evolution of ankylosing spondilitis, it is not severe. Thus, the presence of B35 CREG antigens confirm that locus B antigens different from B27 could be associated with a more favourable prognosis of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments were carried out to assess if ozonated water used as a component of a soilless culture irrigation management plan can reduce the incidence of Verticillium wilt of eggplant caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. The assays were performed on eggplants grown in pots in a greenhouse either on vermiculite hydroponic culture or on sterilized compost. Plants were irrigated (twice daily) with ozonated water (at 5 mg/l) for the first 7 days after transplantation. Ozonated water was applied through an emitter inserted in the substrate so that it could reach directly the rhizosphere. The substrates were artificially inoculated with V. dahliae at concentration of 18 microsclerotia/g substrate. Non inoculated plants but treated with ozonated water and inoculated and non inoculated plants both untreated with ozonated water were used as controls. The severity of leaf wilting and vascular discoloration were assessed according to an empirical scale from 0 to 4. Some morphological parameters were also recorded. Plants grown in untreated vermiculite showed severity indices of leaf wilting and vascular discoloration of 3.1 and 2.8, respectively, whereas in untreated compost the severity indices of leaf wilting and vascular discoloration were 3.4 and 3.1, respectively. The application of ozonated water to vermiculite significantly reduced the severity of leaf wilting (65.7%) and vascular discoloration (72.6%). The reduction of severity of Verticillium wilt in compost was 45% for leaf wilting and 53% for vascular discoloration. The application of ozonated water had no effect on morphological parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological transitions of fluid lipid membranes are fundamental processes for cell life. For example, they are required for endo- and exocytosis or to enable neurotransmitters to cross the neural synapses. Here, inspired by the idea that fusion and fission proteins could have evolved in Nature in order to carry out a minimal work expenditure, we evaluate the minimal free energy pathway for the transition between two spherical large unilamellar vesicles and a dumbbell-shaped one. To address the problem, we propose and successfully use a Ginzburg-Landau type of free energy, which allows us to uniquely describe without interruption the whole, full-scale topological change. We also compute the force fields needed to overcome the involved energy barriers. The obtained forces are in excellent agreement, in terms of intensity, scale, and spatial localization with experimental data on typical fission protein systems, whereas they suggest the presence of additional features in fusion proteins., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2022.)