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Abstract This work implemented a non-invasive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) monitoring approach to study how food components are metabolised by the gut microbiota in-vitro. The fermentability of a model food matrix rich in dietary fibre (oat bran), and a pure prebiotic (inulin), added to a minimal gut medium was compared by looking at global changes in the volatilome. The substrates were incubated with a stabilised human faecal inoculum over a 24-h period, and VOCs were monitored without interfering with biological processes. The fermentation was performed in nitrogen-filled vials, with controlled temperature, and tracked by automated headspace-solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. To understand the molecular patterns over time, we applied a multivariate longitudinal statistical framework: repeated measurements—ANOVA simultaneous component analysis. The methodology was able to discriminate the studied groups by looking at VOCs temporal profiles. The volatilome showed a time-dependency that was more distinct after 12 h. Short to medium-chain fatty acids showed increased peak intensities, mainly for oat bran and for inulin, but with different kinetics. At the same time, alcohols, aldehydes, and esters showed distinct trends with discriminatory power. The proposed approach can be applied to study the intertwined pathways of gut microbiota food components interaction in-vitro.

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba on the physiological response of chlorophyll a in olive (Olea europaea) seedlings. The following eight rates of the 2,4 D (670 g a.e. ha-1) and dicamba (720 g a.e. ha-1) herbicides were applied: 0, 1.56, 3.13, 6.25, 12, 25, 50, and 100% of the recommended for burndown. The herbicides were applied at 80 cm above the seedlings using a CO2 pressurized back sprayer with a 150 L ha-1 spray volume. Plant gas exchange was measured using a portable infrared gas analyzer. Chlorophyll a fluorescence was evaluated using a portable modulated light fluorometer. The application of both herbicides caused a decrease in the process of CO2 assimilation in the plants, reducing net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. The 2,4-D herbicide caused the most severe effects on the variables related to chlorophyll a fluorescence. Low values of maximum quantic yield were observed after the application of the herbicides, of which dicamba was the most harmful. Both herbicides damage the photosynthetic apparatus of olive seedlings.

In recent decades, the phenomenon of urban heat islands has intensified due to the increased frequency, magnitude, and duration of extreme weather and climate events. The study of urban microclimates plays a crucial role in implementing actions to reduce thermal stress caused by urban heat islands. Typically, urban heat islands are identified through thermal satellite images (e.g. Sentinel, Landsat). However, these tools are inadequate for detecting heat islands at an appropriate spatial and temporal scale. Furthermore, satellite images do not measure air temperature but rather the land surface temperature, which is not directly usable to estimate thermal stress on the population. To address this issue, we explored, during Summer 2023 in Padua, the feasibility of using a low-cost sensor (MeteoTracker©) to map urban heat islands, to assess spatial relationships with impermeable surfaces, and to investigate potential correlations with land surface temperature. Over an overall mobile mapping of 540 km, on average, air temperature is 1 °C higher in impermeable areas compared to permeable ones. Confirming this, a 0.1 increase in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) corresponds to a temperature decrease of 0.23 °C in the afternoon and 0.3 °C in the night. Moreover, a positive relationship was found between Land Surface Temperature (LST) and air temperature: an increase of approximately 2 °C in LST for every 1 °C increase in air temperature. This study lays the foundation for further research on urban heat islands, integrating satellite and ground data for the development of high-resolution adaptation actions.

Abstract Mammary gland development occurs primarily in adulthood, undergoing extensive expansion during puberty followed by cycles of functional specialization and regression with every round of pregnancy/lactation/involution. This process is ultimately driven by the coordinated proliferation and differentiation of mammary epithelial cells. However, the endogenous molecular factors regulating these developmental dynamics are still poorly defined. Endocannabinoid signaling is known to determine cell fate-related events during the development of different organs in the central nervous system and the periphery. Here, we report that the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) plays a pivotal role in adult mammary gland development. Specifically, it is required for luminal lineage specification in the mammary gland, and it promotes hormone-driven secretory differentiation of mammary epithelial cells by controlling the endogenous levels of anandamide and the subsequent activation of cannabinoid CB1 receptors. Together, our findings shed light on the role of the endocannabinoid system in breast development and point to FAAH as a therapeutic target in milk-production deficits.

Herein, we explore, from a theoretical perspective, the nonradiative photoinduced processes (charge separation and energy transfer) within a family of donor–acceptor supramolecular complexes based on the electron-donor truxene-tetrathiafulvalene (truxTTF) derivative and a series of curved fullerene fragments (buckybowls) of different shapes and sizes (C30H12, C32H12, and C38H14) as electron acceptors that successfully combine with truxTTF via non-covalent interactions. The resulting supramolecular complexes (truxTTF·C30H12, truxTTF·C32H12, and truxTTF·C38H14) undergo charge-separation processes upon photoexcitation through charge-transfer states involving the donor and acceptor units. Despite the not so different size of the buckybowls, they present noticeable differences in the charge-separation efficiency owing to a complex decay post-photoexcitation mechanism involving several low-lying excited states of different natures (local and charge-transfer excitations), all closely spaced in energy. In this intricate scenario, we have adopted a theoretical approach combining electronic structure calculations at (time-dependent) density functional theory, a multistate multifragment diabatization method, the Marcus–Levitch–Jortner semiclassical rate expression, and a kinetic model to estimate the charge separation rate constants of the supramolecular heterodimers. Our outcomes highlight that the efficiency of the photoinduced charge-separation process increases with the extension of the buckybowl backbone. The supramolecular heterodimer with the largest buckybowl (truxTTF·C38H14) displays multiple and efficient electron-transfer pathways, providing a global photoinduced charge separation in the ultrafast time scale in line with the experimental findings. The study reported indicates that modifications in the shape and size of buckybowl systems can give rise to attractive novel acceptors for potential photovoltaic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, two rice varieties (RS4 and GZ93) with different amylose and lipid contents were studied, and their starch was used to prepare starch-palmitic acid complexes. The RS4 samples showed a significantly higher lipid content in their flour, starch, and complex samples compared to GZ93. The static in vitro digestion highlighted that RS4 samples had significantly lower digestibility than the GZ93 samples. The C∞ of the starch-lipid complex samples was found to be 17.7% and 18.5% lower than that of the starch samples in GZ93 and RS4, respectively. The INFOGEST undigested fractions were subsequently used for in vitro colonic fermentation. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentrations, mainly acetate, and propionate were significantly higher in starch-lipid complexes compared to native flour or starch samples. Starch-lipid complexes produced a distinctive microbial composition, which resulted in different gene functions, mainly related to pyruvate, fructose, and mannose metabolism. Using Model-based Integration of Metabolite Observations and Species Abundances 2 (MIMOSA2), SCFA production was predicted and associated with the gut microbiota. These results indicated that incorporating lipids into rice starch promotes SCFA production by modulating the gut microbiota selectively.

Abstract Background Recently we developed a gene orthology inference tool based on genome rearrangements (Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology 19:6, 2021). Given a set of genomes our method first computes all pairwise gene similarities. Then it runs pairwise ILP comparisons to compute optimal gene matchings, which minimize, by taking the similarities into account, the weighted rearrangement distance between the analyzed genomes (a problem that is NP-hard). The gene matchings are then integrated into gene families in the final step. The mentioned ILP includes an optimal capping that connects each end of a linear segment of one genome to an end of a linear segment in the other genome, producing an exponential increase of the search space. Results In this work, we design and implement a heuristic capping algorithm that replaces the optimal capping by clustering (based on their gene content intersections) the linear segments into $$m\ge 1$$ m ≥ 1 subsets, whose ends are capped independently. Furthermore, in each subset, instead of allowing all possible connections, we let only the ends of content-related segments be connected. Although there is no guarantee that m is much bigger than one, and with the possible side effect of resulting in sub-optimal instead of optimal gene matchings, the heuristic works very well in practice, from both the speed performance and the quality of computed solutions. Our experiments on primate and fruit fly genomes show two positive results. First, for complete assemblies of five primates the version with heuristic capping reports orthologies that are very similar to the orthologies computed by the version of our tool with optimal capping. Second, we were able to efficiently analyze fruit fly genomes with incomplete assemblies distributed in hundreds or even thousands of contigs, obtaining gene families that are very similar to $${\text{F}} {\textsc{ly}} {\text{B}} {\textsc{ase}}$$ F L Y B A S E families. Indeed, our tool inferred a higher number of complete cliques, with a higher intersection with $${\text{F}} {\textsc{ly}} {\text{B}} {\textsc{ase}}$$ F L Y B A S E , when compared to gene families computed by other inference tools. We added a post-processing for refining, with the aid of the $${\textsc{mcl}}$$ M C L algorithm, our ambiguous families (those with more than one gene per genome), improving even more the accuracy of our results. Our approach is implemented into a pipeline incorporating the pre-computation of gene similarities and the post-processing refinement of ambiguous families with $$\textsc {mcl}$$ M C L . Both the original version with optimal capping and the new modified version with heuristic capping can be downloaded, together with their detailed documentations, at https://gitlab.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/gi/FFGC or as a Conda package at https://anaconda.org/bioconda/ffgc .

The apple industry uses high flows of potable quality water to transport and clean the apple, which is regularly contaminated. Thus, it is necessary to implement an efficient water treatment system during the industrial process, providing reductions in the intake and release flows. A hybrid system was developed by applying the electrolytic treatment by electrocoagulation using a batch process (Step 1) and a continuous process (Step 2), followed by a microfiltration membrane separation (MSP) process (Step 3). The optimal conditions for removal of organic matter, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, color, and fungi obtained in Step 1 were a hydraulic detention time of 40 min, stirring at 40 rpm, current density of 20 A/m2, pH of 8.00, and temperature of 10 °C. These findings led to a successful implementation in Step 2, which evolved into Step 3, where tests in the combined continuous electrolytic reactor together with MSP showed significant removal rates, notably reaching up to 54% organic matter (OM) removal, 72% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, 83% TSS removal, 92% haze and color removal, and 100% mildew removal. The hybrid system proved to be a promising alternative for implementation in the processing industry, minimizing environmental impacts and costs. HIGHLIGHTS Electrocoagulation associated with the separation process by the microfiltration membrane demonstrated efficiency in the removal of pollutants.; The hybrid system proved to be a promising alternative to prolong the life cycle of water in the apple processing industry.; This study contributes to the reduction of input and output flows, minimizing environmental impacts and costs during the industrial processing of apples.;

Abstract Background Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a key signaling node in B cell receptor (BCR) and Fc receptor (FcR) signaling. BTK inhibitors (BTKi) are an emerging oral treatment option for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). Remibrutinib (LOU064) is a potent, highly selective covalent BTKi with a promising preclinical and clinical profile for MS and other autoimmune or autoallergic indications. Methods The efficacy and mechanism of action of remibrutinib was assessed in two different experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse models for MS. The impact of remibrutinib on B cell-driven EAE pathology was determined after immunization with human myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (HuMOG). The efficacy on myeloid cell and microglia driven neuroinflammation was determined in the RatMOG EAE. In addition, we assessed the relationship of efficacy to BTK occupancy in tissue, ex vivo T cell response, as well as single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) in brain and spinal cord tissue. Results Remibrutinib inhibited B cell-dependent HuMOG EAE in dose-dependent manner and strongly reduced neurological symptoms. At the efficacious oral dose of 30 mg/kg, remibrutinib showed strong BTK occupancy in the peripheral immune organs and in the brain of EAE mice. Ex vivo MOG-specific T cell recall response was reduced, but not polyclonal T cell response, indicating absence of non-specific T cell inhibition. Remibrutinib also inhibited RatMOG EAE, suggesting that myeloid cell and microglia inhibition contribute to its efficacy in EAE. Remibrutinib did not reduce B cells, total Ig levels nor MOG-specific antibody response. In brain and spinal cord tissue a clear anti-inflammatory effect in microglia was detected by scRNA-seq. Finally, remibrutinib showed potent inhibition of in vitro immune complex-driven inflammatory response in human microglia. Conclusion Remibrutinib inhibited EAE models by a two-pronged mechanism based on inhibition of pathogenic B cell autoreactivity, as well as direct anti-inflammatory effects in microglia. Remibrutinib showed efficacy in both models in absence of direct B cell depletion, broad T cell inhibition or reduction of total Ig levels. These findings support the view that remibrutinib may represent a novel treatment option for patients with MS.

Today’s new teaching and learning methodologies in higher education have moved the center from teacher to student and from teaching to learning. Since Team-Based Learning (TBL) is one of the most frequently used active learning methodologies that have emerged, the objective of this paper is to analyze and evaluate students’ perception of this methodology. To that end, first we study the positive and negative aspects of TBL considered by students. Then, we define a synthetic indicator to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of students with this methodology and analyze it according to sociodemographic variables. Finally, we analyze whether there is any correlation between the degree of satisfaction of each student and their individual final grade in global terms. The analysis is performed using a database (which includes information of 657 students) created by merging two datasets: an online questionnaire answered by students, and academic and sociodemographic information of the students who participated in the questionnaire. The main results show that TBL is perceived as a positive methodology, with respect to improving teamwork abilities. Significant differences in several competences were found by age groups, between students with or without a paid job, and depending on the educational attainment of their parents. The students’ perception of TBL regarding motivation and performance during the learning process gives information about the sociodemographic characteristics of the students who will show greater acceptance and appreciation of the introduction of TBL.

ABSTRACT: The most burdensome conditions faced by women in labour relations continue to be a major problem, which has been the focus of attention for decades, advocating the introduction of corrective measures from the configuration of employment policies aimed at achieving an equitable labour market, capable of providing decent employment without discriminatory treatment or consequences based on gender. Women have been and continue to be priority targets of active employment policies. Public policies aimed at removing the inequalities that women suffer as a result of being women in the world of work have occupied a central place on the public agenda and yet the eradication of gender prejudices and stereotypes continues to be the great unfinished business of the labour market.

Human organotypic bone models are an emerging technology that replicate bone physiology and mechanobiology for comprehensive in vitro experimentation over prolonged periods of time. Recently, we introduced a mineralized bone model based on 3D bioprinted cell-laden alginate-gelatin-graphene oxide hydrogels cultured under dynamic loading using commercially available human mesenchymal stem cells. In the present study, we created cell-laden scaffolds from primary human osteoblasts isolated from surgical waste material and investigated the effects of a previously reported optimal cell printing density (5 × 106 cells/mL bioink) vs. a higher physiological cell density (10 × 106 cells/mL bioink). We studied mineral formation, scaffold stiffness, and cell morphology over a 10-week period to determine culture conditions for primary human bone cells in this microenvironment. For analysis, the human bone-derived cell-laden scaffolds underwent multiscale assessment at specific timepoints. High cell viability was observed in both groups after bioprinting (>90%) and after 2 weeks of daily mechanical loading (>85%). Bioprinting at a higher cell density resulted in faster mineral formation rates, higher mineral densities and remarkably a 10-fold increase in stiffness compared to a modest 2-fold increase in the lower printing density group. In addition, physiological cell bioprinting densities positively impacted cell spreading and formation of dendritic interconnections. We conclude that our methodology of processing patient-specific human bone cells, subsequent biofabrication and dynamic culturing reliably affords mineralized cell-laden scaffolds. In the future, in vitro systems based on patient-derived cells could be applied to study the individual phenotype of bone disorders such as osteogenesis imperfecta and aid clinical decision making.

Purpose. To analyze prosthetic complications of single screw-retained implant-supported metal–ceramic fixed prostheses (SSIMCFPs). Materials and Methods. A total of 457 medical records of patients treated with implants at the University Dental Clinic of the European University of Valencia from 2016 to 2022 were reviewed. Of the 335 SSIMCFPs evaluated, 222 were included. The following data were collected from medical records: age, sex, prosthesis location, implant diameter, type of antagonist, date of prosthesis placement, type of prosthetic complications, and the date of the occurrence of complications. Statistical analysis was estimated at the patient level with a simple binary logistic regression and at the prosthesis level, a simple logistic regression with generalized estimating equation models (p