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Background: Consumers of boiled cassava in Africa, Latin America and Asia use specific preference criteria to evaluate its cooking quality, in terms of texture, colour and taste. To improve adoption rates of improved cassava varieties intended for consumption after boiling, these preference criteria need to be determined, quantified and integrated as post-harvest quality traits in the target product profile of boiled cassava, so that breeding programs may screen candidate varieties based on both agronomic traits and consumer preference traits., Results: Surveys of various end-user groups identified seven priority quality attributes of boiled cassava covering root preparation, visual aspect, taste and texture. Three populations of contrasted cassava genotypes, from good-cooking to bad-cooking, in three countries (Uganda, Benin, Colombia) were then characterized according to these quality attributes by sensory quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) and by standard instrumental methods. Consumers' preferences of the texture attributes mealiness and hardness were also determined. By analysis of correlations, the consumers' preferences scores were translated into thresholds of acceptability in terms of QDA scores, then in terms of instrumental measurements (water absorption during boiling and texture analysis). The thresholds of acceptability were used to identify among the Colombian and Benin populations promising genotypes for boiled cassava quality., Conclusion: This work demonstrates the steps of determining priority quality attributes for boiled cassava and establishing their corresponding quantitative thresholds of acceptability. The information can then be included in boiled cassava target product profiles used by cassava breeders, for better selection and adoption rates of new varieties. © 2024 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.)

Background: Consumer preferences for boiled or fried pieces of roots, tubers and bananas (RTBs) are mainly related to their texture. Different raw and cooked RTBs were physiochemically characterized to determine the effect of biochemical components on their cooking properties., Results: Firmness in boiled sweetpotato increases with sugar and amylose contents but no significant correlation was observed between other physicochemical characteristics and cooking behaviour. Hardness of boiled yam can be predicted by dry matter (DM) and galacturonic acid (GalA) levels. For cassava, no significant correlation was found between textural properties of boiled roots and DM, but amylose and Ca 2+ content were correlated with firmness, negatively and positively, respectively. Water absorption of cassava root pieces boiled in calcium chloride solutions was much lower, providing indirect evidence that pectins are involved in determining cooking quality. A highly positive correlation between textural attributes and DM was observed for fried plantain, but no significant correlation was found with GalA, although frying slightly reduced GalA., Conclusion: The effect of main components on texture after cooking differs for the various RTBs. The effect of global DM and major components (i.e. starch, amylose) is prominent for yam, plantain and sweetpotato. Pectins also play an important role on the texture of boiled yam and play a prominent role for cassava through interaction with Ca 2+ . © 2023 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.)

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of hyperspectral imaging for the characterization of cooking quality parameters, dry matter content (DMC), water absorption (WAB), and texture in cassava genotypes contrasting for their cooking quality., Results: Hyperspectral images were acquired on cooked and fresh intact longitudinal and transversal slices from 31 cassava genotypes harvested in March 2022 in Colombia. Different chemometric methods were tested for the quantification of DMC, WAB, and texture parameters. Data analysis was conducted through partial least squares regression, K nearest neighbors regression, support vector machine regression and CovSel multiple linear regression (CovSel_MLR). Efficient performances were obtained for DMC using CovSel_MLR with, coefficient of multiple determination R p 2 = 0.94 , root-mean-square error of prediction RMSEP = 0.96 g/100 g, and ratio of the standard deviation values RPD = 3.60. High heterogeneity was observed between contrasting genotypes. The predicted distribution of DMC within the root can be homogeneous or heterogeneous depending on the genotype. Weak predictions were obtained for WAB and texture parameters., Conclusions: This study showed that hyperspectral imaging could be used as a high-throughput phenotyping tool for the visualization of DMC in contrasting cooking quality genotypes. Further improvement of protocols and larger datasets are required for WAB and texture quality traits. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.)

Roots, tubers and bananas (RTBs) contribute immensely to food security and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. The adoption of RTB genotypes in these regions relies on the interplay among agronomic traits, ease of processing and consumer preference. In breeding RTBs, until recently little attention was accorded key textural traits preferred by consumers. Moreover, a lack of standard, discriminant, repeatable protocols that can be used to measure the textural traits deter linkages between breeding better RTB genotypes and end user/consumer preferences. RTB products texture - that is, behaviour of RTB food products under unique deformations, such as disintegration and the flow of a food under force - is a critical component of these preferences. The preferences consumers have for certain product texture can be evaluated from expert sensory panel and consumer surveys, which are useful tools in setting thresholds for textural traits, and inform breeders on what to improve in the quality of RTBs. Textural characterization of RTBs under standard operating procedures (SOPs) is important in ensuring the standardization of texture measurement conditions, predictability of textural quality of RTBs, and ultimately definition of RTB food product profiles. This paper reviews current SOPs for the textural characterization of RTBs, including their various associated methods, parameters, challenges and merits. Case studies of texture characterized during development of SOPs and evaluation of texture of RTB populations are discussed, together with insights into key textural attributes and correlations between instrumental, sensory and consumer assessment of texture unique to various RTB food products. Hardness was considered a universal key textural attribute to discriminate RTBs. The review should provide adequate insight into texture of RTB food products and critical factors in their measurement. It aims to promote inclusion of texture in breeding pipelines by investigating which textural traits are prioritized by consumers, particularly since the inclusion of textural traits has recently gained prominence by breeders in improving RTBs. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.)

The crossing of environmental barriers poses major adaptive challenges. Rareness of freshwater-marine transitions separates the bacterial communities, but how these are related to brackish counterparts remains elusive, as do the molecular adaptations facilitating cross-biome transitions. We conducted large-scale phylogenomic analysis of freshwater, brackish, and marine quality-filtered metagenome-assembled genomes (11,248). Average nucleotide identity analyses showed that bacterial species rarely existed in multiple biomes. In contrast, distinct brackish basins cohosted numerous species, but their intraspecific population structures displayed clear signs of geographic separation. We further identified the most recent cross-biome transitions, which were rare, ancient, and most commonly directed toward the brackish biome. Transitions were accompanied by systematic changes in amino acid composition and isoelectric point distributions of inferred proteomes, which evolved over millions of years, as well as convergent gains or losses of specific gene functions. Therefore, adaptive challenges entailing proteome reorganization and specific changes in gene content constrains the cross-biome transitions, resulting in species-level separation between aquatic biomes.

Background: For many environments, biome-specific microbial gene catalogues are being recovered using shotgun metagenomics followed by assembly and gene calling on the assembled contigs. The assembly is typically conducted either by individually assembling each sample or by co-assembling reads from all the samples. The co-assembly approach can potentially recover genes that display too low abundance to be assembled from individual samples. On the other hand, combining samples increases the risk of mixing data from closely related strains, which can hamper the assembly process. In this respect, assembly on individual samples followed by clustering of (near) identical genes is preferable. Thus, both approaches have potential pros and cons, but it remains to be evaluated which assembly strategy is most effective. Here, we have evaluated three assembly strategies for generating gene catalogues from metagenomes using a dataset of 124 samples from the Baltic Sea: (1) assembly on individual samples followed by clustering of the resulting genes, (2) co-assembly on all samples, and (3) mix assembly, combining individual and co-assembly., Results: The mix-assembly approach resulted in a more extensive nonredundant gene set than the other approaches and with more genes predicted to be complete and that could be functionally annotated. The mix assembly consists of 67 million genes (Baltic Sea gene set, BAGS) that have been functionally and taxonomically annotated. The majority of the BAGS genes are dissimilar (< 95% amino acid identity) to the Tara Oceans gene dataset, and hence, BAGS represents a valuable resource for brackish water research., Conclusion: The mix-assembly approach represents a feasible approach to increase the information obtained from metagenomic samples. Video abstract., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Periodontitis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are two widespread chronic inflammatory diseases with a previously suggested association. The objective of the current study was to compare the oral microbial composition and host´s inflammatory mediator profile of saliva samples obtained from subjects with periodontitis, with and without RA, as well as to predict biomarkers, of bacterial pathogens and/or inflammatory mediators, for classification of samples associated with periodontitis and RA., Methods: Salivary samples were obtained from 53 patients with periodontitis and RA and 48 non-RA with chronic periodontitis. The microbial composition was identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and compared across periodontitis patients with and without RA. Levels of inflammatory mediators were determined using a multiplex bead assay, compared between the groups and correlated to the microbial profile. The achieved data was analysed using PCoA, DESeq2 and two machine learning algorithms, OPLS-DA and sPLS-DA., Results: Differential abundance DESeq2 analyses showed that the four most highly enriched (log2 FC >20) amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) in the non-RA periodontitis group included Alloprevotella sp., Prevotella sp., Haemophilus sp., and Actinomyces sp. whereas Granulicatella sp., Veillonella sp., Megasphaera sp., and Fusobacterium nucleatum were the most highly enriched ASVs (log2 FC >20) in the RA group. OPLS-DA with log2 FC analyses demonstrated that the top ASVs with the highest importance included Vampirovibrio sp. having a positive correlation with non-RA group, and seven ASVs belonging to Sphingomonas insulae , Sphingobium sp., Novosphingobium aromaticivorans , Delftia acidovorans , Aquabacterium spp. and Sphingomonas echinoides with a positive correlation with RA group. Among the detected inflammatory mediators in saliva samples, TWEAK/TNFSF12, IL-35, IFN-α2, pentraxin-3, gp130/sIL6Rb, sIL-6Ra, IL-19 and sTNF-R1 were found to be significantly increased in patients with periodontitis and RA compared to non-RA group with periodontitis. Moreover, correlations between ASVs and inflammatory mediators using sPLS-DA analysis revealed that TWEAK/TNFSF12, pentraxin-3 and IL-19 were positively correlated with the ASVs Sphingobium sp., Acidovorax delafieldii , Novosphingobium sp., and Aquabacterium sp., Conclusion: Our results suggest that the combination of microbes and host inflammatory mediators could be more efficient to be used as a predictable biomarker associated with periodontitis and RA, as compared to microbes and inflammatory mediators alone., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Eriksson, Lundmark, Delgado, Hu, Fei, Lee, Fei, Catrina, Jansson, Andersson and Yucel-Lindberg.)

Sexually transmitted infections (STI), including HIV, are among the most reported diseases in the U.S. and represent some of America's most significant health disparities. The growing scarcity of health care services in rural settings limits STI prevention and treatment for rural Americans. Local health departments are the primary source for STI care in rural communities; however, these providers experience two main challenges, also known as a double disparity: (1) inadequate capacity and (2) poor health in rural populations. Moreover, in rural communities the interaction of rural status and key determinants of health increase STI disparities. These key determinants can include structural, behavioral, and interpersonal factors, one of which is stigma. Engaging the expertise and involvement of affected community members in decisions regarding the needs, barriers, and opportunities for better sexual health is an asset and offers a gateway to sustainable, successful, and non-stigmatizing STI prevention programs., (© 2021. This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

Bacterioplankton are main drivers of biogeochemical cycles and important components of aquatic food webs. While sequencing-based studies have revealed how bacterioplankton communities are structured in time and space, relatively little is known about intraspecies diversity patterns and their ecological relevance. Here, we use the newly developed software POGENOM (POpulation GENomics from Metagenomes) to investigate genomic diversity and differentiation in metagenome-assembled genomes from the Baltic Sea, and investigate their genomic variation using metagenome data spanning a 1700 km transect and covering seasonal variation at one station. The majority of the investigated species, representing several major bacterioplankton clades, displayed population structures correlating significantly with environmental factors such as salinity and temperature. Population differentiation was more pronounced over spatial than temporal scales. We discovered genes that have undergone adaptation to different salinity regimes, potentially responsible for the populations' existence along with the salinity range. This in turn implies the broad existence of ecotypes that may remain undetected by rRNA gene sequencing. Our findings emphasize the importance of physiological barriers, and highlight the role of adaptive divergence as a structuring mechanism of bacterioplankton species., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Introduction: COVID-19, caused by the betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has overwhelmed the world's health systems., Objective: To describe the epidemiological characteristics of patients treated in a tertiary care hospital., Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19 from March 23 to July 31, 2020 was conducted., Results: 4,401 patients were hospitalized at Central Military Hospital, out of which 35 % were beneficiaries, 26 % civilians, 28 % active military personnel, and only 11 %, retired military personnel. Male gender predominated, both in hospitalized patients and in those who died, as well as the O+ group and absence of comorbidities; among the observed comorbidities, the main ones were overweight and diabetes. Hospitalized patients' median age was 49 years, while median age of those who died was 62 years; women older than 51 years had a higher risk of dying. Adjusted case fatality rate was 18.5 %; 50 % died within the first six days., Conclusions: In this study, the epidemiological characteristics and main comorbidities in Mexican patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified., (Copyright: © 2021 Permanyer.)

Objective:  To investigate the association between genetic polymorphisms in candidate genes or candidate regions and the development of endometriosis in Brazilian women., Methods:  A total of 30 women between 25 and 64 years old with a diagnosis of endometriosis participated in the present study, as well as 30 matched control women from the same age group, asymptomatic and without family history of the disease. The patients genotypic and allelic frequencies of polymorphisms in the GREB1 gene (rs13394619) and in the intergenic region at position 7p15.2 (rs12700667) were analyzed and compared., Results:  There was no significant difference in the frequency of genotypes for the A > G polymorphism (rs13394619) in the GREB1 gene between the two groups. However, the distribution frequencies of the genotypes for the A > G polymorphism (rs12700667) in an intergenic region on chromosome 7 were different for control patients and for patients with endometriosis, with higher frequency of the AG genotype compared to the GG between patients with the disease (odds ratio [OR] = 3.49; confidence interval [CI] = 1.47-8.26)., Conclusion:  The present study suggests that the polymorphism in the intergenic region of chromosome 7 is associated with the risk of developing endometriosis in a population of Brazilian women from Juiz de Fora., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflict of interests to declare., (Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.)

Background: Shotgun injuries (SGI) are infrequent, but due its special ballistics, are related to adverse outcomes., Objective: To analyze operative and administrative variables, critical for the institution., Method: Demographics and health-care related variables from SGI patients admitted to Military Central Hospital (Mexico City) between July 2006 and August 2019, were retrospectively studied. Statistics methods used were dispersion measures and relative occurrence frequency., Results: Over a 15 months-span, 21 SGI patients were admitted. Mean age was 36.9 ± 13.6 years (range: 14-61) and male gender was dominant (n = 20; 95%). Type II SGI were the most common injuries (62%; 13/21). Mean hospital length of stay was 37.1 ± 28.7 days (range: 3-109) while stay at ICU was 20.3 ± 22.5 days (range: 3-99). Global rate of morbidity was 82% (17/21) and most frequent complications were infective. Global mortality rate was 24% (5/21)., Conclusions: Once SGI cause prolonged length of stay, high rate of morbidity and of enormous consuming of material and human resources, primary prevention strategies are convenient for health-care systems compromised to the care of these cases., (Copyright: © 2020 Permanyer.)

Emerging contaminants (EC) are an imminent risk due to potential toxicity to aquatic ecosystems and human beings. This type of contaminants is found in low concentrations and usually present incomplete or inefficient removal by conventional treatments, which entail its permanence and constant increase. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) are an alternative for the elimination of dangerous and resistant substances in wastewater. So, this research evaluates the caffeine degradation in aqueous solution by AOP, such as: Fenton, Electro-Oxidation (EO) with boron doped diamond (BDD) electrodes, Electro-Fenton (EF) and Photo-Electro-Fenton (PEF). The influences of pH, concentration of the supporting electrolyte and specific electric charge were investigated using a Taguchi׳s factorial design, which allowed to identify the contribution of each variable in the process. The data obtained in this work can be useful for scaling process and cost analysis because it provide the information at pilot plant scale.

The benefit of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in controlling the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease is well established, however, the impact on the non-motor symptoms (NMS) remains to be elucidated, although the growing investigative efforts are promising. This article reviews the reported data and considers the level of evidence available with regard to the effect of DBS on NMS total burden and on the cognitive, neuropsychiatric, sleep, pain, dysautonomic, and weight domains. Multiple case series suggest that DBS improves the burden of NMS by reducing prevalence, intensity, and non-motor fluctuations. There is level I evidence on the effect of DBS on cognition and mood. Slight cognitive decline has been reported in most class I studies, although the functional effect is probably minimal. Two randomized prospective studies reported no change in depression while improvement of anxiety has been reported by a class I trial. Prospective cohort studies point to improvement of hyperdopaminergic behaviors, such as impulse control disorders, while others report that hypodopaminergic states, like apathy, can appear after DBS. There is only class III evidence supporting the benefit of DBS on other NMS such as nocturnal sleep, pain, dysautonomia (urinary, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and sweating), and weight loss. Although preliminary results are promising, randomized prospectively controlled trials with NMS as primary end points are necessary to further explore the effect of DBS on these often invalidating symptoms and offer conclusions about efficacy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This study aims to analyze the maturation and dispersal of Eugenia pyriformis Cambess. seeds produced in different years, and the influence of variation in thermal and hydric environment on seed physical and physiological characteristics at dispersal. Fruits at different developmental stages were harvested in the city of São Paulo between 2003 and 2010, as well as in the cities of Campinas and Lavras, in 2009 and 2010 and analyzed for size and color. The seeds were extracted from the fruits and their dry mass, water content, germination and vigor were assessed. Results showed that seed maturation is unsynchronized to the maturation of the fruit, taking 45 days on average (430 growing degree-days), longer in rainy times or lower temperatures. Seeds with higher physiological quality were produced in rainy years and when the temperature range was larger. We concluded therefore that hydric and thermal environmental variations during development influence the maturation of Eugenia pyriformis seeds and are able to determine the formation cycle and the final seed quality.

Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of trace-level pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in a number of finished drinking waters (DWs). Since there is sparse knowledge currently available on the potential effects on human health associated with the chronic exposure to trace levels of these Emerging Contaminants (ECs) through routes such as DW, it is suggested that the most appropriate criterion is a treatment criterion in order to prioritize ECs to be monitored during DW preparation. Hence, only the few ECs showing the lowest removals towards a given DW Treatment (DWT) process would serve as indicators of the overall efficiency of this process and would be relevant for DW quality monitoring. In addition, models should be developed for estimating the removal of ECs in DWT processes, thereby overcoming the practical difficulties of experimentally assessing each compound. Therefore, the present review has two objectives: (1) to provide an overview of the recent scientific surveys on the occurrence of PhACs and EDCs in finished DWs; and (2) to propose the potential of Quantitative-Structure-Activity-Relationship-(QSAR)-like models to rank ECs found in environmental waters, including parent compounds, metabolites and transformation products, in order to select the most relevant compounds to be considered as indicators for monitoring purposes in DWT systems., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper provides a review of recent scientific research on the removal by activated carbon (AC) in drinking water (DW) treatment of 1) two classes of currently unregulated trace level contaminants with potential chronic toxicity-pharmaceutically activate compounds (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs); 2) cyanobacterial toxins (CyBTs), which are a group of highly toxic and regulated compounds (as microcystin-LR); and 3) the above mentioned compounds by the hybrid system powdered AC/membrane filtration. The influence of solute and AC properties, as well as the competitive effect from background natural organic matter on the adsorption of such trace contaminants, are also considered. In addition, a number of adsorption isotherm parameters reported for PhACs, EDCs and CyBTs are presented herein. AC adsorption has proven to be an effective removal process for such trace contaminants without generating transformation products. This process appears to be a crucial step in order to minimize PhACs, EDCs and CyBTs in finished DW, hence calling for further studies on AC adsorption removal of these compounds. Finally, a priority chart of PhACs and EDCs warranting further study for the removal by AC adsorption is proposed based on the compounds' structural characteristics and their low removal by AC compared to the other compounds., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The application of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology was investigated with the aim of evaluating its potential for cytostatic drug and cytotoxicity bioremoval. The toxicity removal was assessed from biomarker test. CP removal of up to 80% was achieved under the operating conditions studied (HRT of 48 h and a SRT of 50 days). The increase of TMP was associated with an increase of supernatant toxicity as if fouling led to retention of the toxicity. Peaks of supernatant cytotoxicity were correlated with peaks in supernatant humic acid contents. It may suggest that molecules with a toxic effect may be adsorbed or entrapped in humic acids substances. Our study then points out that advances in wastewater treatment using an MBR can provide a suitable process for lowering CP concentrations before discharge into the aqueous environment. However, a tertiary treatment is necessary if complete elimination of toxicity is targeted., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Determining a child's chronological age and stage of maturation is particularly important in fields such as paediatrics, orthopaedics, and orthodontics, as well as in forensic and anthropological studies. Some systemic conditions can cause abnormal physiological maturation, and skeletal maturation is usually more delayed than dental maturation. The aim of this study was to determine dental age in a group of patients with the most prevalent congenital or perinatally occurring physical and mental disabilities. The study group comprised 155 white Spanish children aged 3-17 years (35 with cerebral palsy, 83 with mental retardation and no associated syndromes or systemic conditions, and 37 with Down syndrome). The dental maturation indices described by Nolla and Demirjian were used to generate regression lines for the dental age of individuals in a control group (688 white Spanish children aged 3-17 years) and the formulae were then used to determine the dental age of patients in the study group. No significant differences were found between dental and chronological age in boys with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, or Down syndrome. In contrast, dental age (calculated from the linear regression model that included values for the Demirjian index) was significantly delayed compared with chronological age in girls with cerebral palsy or Down syndrome., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of cyclophosphamide and its principal metabolites (CPs) on microbial behaviour in a membrane bioreactor system. Two laboratory-scale membrane bioreactors (MBR) were run in parallel with a sludge retention time of 70 days (one with the cytostatic drugs, MBR-CPs, the second without, MBR-control). The microbial activity was measured by respirometric analysis. The endogenous and exogenous respirations of heterotrophic micro-organisms were evaluated. Micro-organisms exposed to CPs showed higher endogenous respiration rates and lower exogenous respiration rates than micro-organisms present in MBR-control. The effects were observed several days after adding the cocktail. Reduced sludge production was observed in MBR-CPs compared to MBR-control. This reduction of sludge production and the increase in the endogenous respiration rate in relation to MBR-control suggest that the chemical stress caused by CPs led to a diversion of carbon and/or energy from growth to adaptive responses and protection. In addition, the inhibitory effect on the assimilation of exogenous substrate (reduced exogenous respiration rate) suggests an inhibition of catabolism and anabolism despite the low CPs concentration studied (microg/L). However, this inhibitory effect can be offset by the biomass still active under low ratio (substrate/biomass) conditions in the bioreactor (due to complete retention of biomass and high sludge age), which helped to maintain high overall performance in the removal of conventional pollution.

The effect of the cyclophosphamide and its mean metabolites on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) formation was investigated. Two lab-scale membrane bioreactors were followed in parallel (one with the cytostatic drugs, the second without). Chromatographic and spectroscopic studies (UV-Vis spectroscopy and IR spectroscopy) showed that the presence of CPs induced an increase in EPS concentration in the biological sludge, especially of soluble substances, mainly polysaccharides and proteins. Size exclusion chromatography analysis revealed that in the presence of CPs, macromolecular EPS were formed (polysaccharides corresponding to about 6 KDa and proteins to about 18 KDa). The formation of EPS seemed to be a protection mechanism. More important membrane fouling in reactor with CPs seemed to be related to the retention of an increased amount of soluble substances.

Background: Adverse cardiac effects have been related to the use of H1-receptor antagonists terfenadine and astemizole., Objective: We have investigated the cardiac effects of the H1-receptor antagonists terfenadine, astemizole, loratadine and cetirizine, used in recommended doses, concomitantly or not with the antibiotic erythromycin., Methods: A group of 80 children aged 5 to 12 years was studied. All children had been diagnosed with perennial allergic rhinitis based on symptoms, clinical signs and a positive immediate skin test to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. The children had no personal history of cardiac disease or hepatic dysfunction, and they had a normal electrocardiogram (ECG) at the beginning of the study. Forty children had allergic rhinitis and sinusitis, and were assigned to subgroups of ten children who received terfenadine, astemizole, loratadine, or cetirizine, concomitantly with erythromycin, for 14 days. Erythromycin was started to treat presumed bacterial infection in children with complete radiologic opacification of the maxillary sinus(es). The remaining 40 children had no sinusitis, and were assigned to subgroups of 10 children who received terfenadine, astemizole, loratadine, or cetirizine for 14 days., Results: No significant changes in the QT interval and QTc (QT corrected by Bazzett's equation) were observed among children who received astemizole, loratadine or cetirizine, with or without erythromycin. Children who have received terfenadine and erythromycin showed significantly prolonged QT interval (mean pretreatment and posttreatment values 0.32s and 0.34s, respectively). Analysis of the QTc interval, however, showed no significant differences in the group treated with terfenadine and erythromycin (mean values 0.39s and 0.39s, respectively)., Conclusions: Our results show that H1-receptor antagonists terfenadine, astemizole, loratadine and cetirizine, administered with or without erythromycin, to atopic children in recommended doses, do not induce adverse cardiac effects. Although the association between terfenadine and erythromycin has caused a statistically significant increase in QT interval measurements, the magnitude of these changes was below levels considered cardiotoxic or clinically relevant.