Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) use bacteria to convert the chemical energy of a particular substrate contained in wastewater into electrical energy. This is achieved when bacteria transfer electrons to ...an electrode rather than directly to an electron acceptor. Their technical feasibility has recently been proven and there is great enthusiasm in the scientific community that MFCs could provide a source of “green electricity” by exploiting domestic and industrial waste to generate power. By using organic matter in wastewater as a fuel, contaminants are removed from water while generating electricity. The design of new materials has led to increased levels of power being generated, particularly when compared with the levels possible using common materials. Moreover, the use of inexpensive materials, such as ceramic membranes or non-platinum catalysts, makes it possible to obtain a feasible device to produce electricity. However, it is necessary to improve the performance of MFCs before they can be scaled up since, to date, their practical implementation is not feasible. Therefore, the global objective pursued by researchers is the development and evaluation of low cost catalysts (non-precious metals) for improving electron acceptor reduction (new cathodes), new biocompatible anodes and membranes, and novel configurations which improve the power and the wastewater treatment efficiency of MFCs, while reducing their cost. This review is intended to provide a critical and global vision of recent advances in microbial fuel cells and the potential applications of this technology. In this article, an overview over all aspects concerning MFC technology is provided, including issues such as new anode and cathode materials, types of membranes, MFC configurations, their application in the treatment of different types of wastewaters, bioenergy production, modeling and future perspectives.
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•· MFCs are a potentially promising technology for bioelectricity production.•Recent advances in MFC materials have contributed to enhancing their performance.•Power improvement and cost reduction of MFCs enlarge their range of application.•Modeling is a useful tool for microbial fuel cell optimization.
Objective: To ascertain whether insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is associated with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and is a useful predictor of the disease. Although its aetiopathogenesis is ...multifactorial, development of the disease appears to be related to a deficiency in IGF1, a hormone that acts together with vascular endothelial growth factor in the normal angiogenesis in the retina.
Design: Prospective study for a 30‐month period.
Participants: A total of 74 premature newborn babies, of less than 1500 g and/or 32 weeks’ gestational age or less.
Testing: To determine the development and severity of ROP.
Main outcome measures: Serum levels of IGF1 were measured once a week from birth until 40 weeks corrected gestational age in each subject.
Results: Of our subjects, 32.4% developed some form of ROP, and all those ROP patients had the following characteristics at birth (median ± standard deviation scores): low weight (1098 ± 188 vs. 1393 ± 285 g), short length (36.74 ± 1.77 vs. 38.89 ± 3.08 cm), small cranial perimeter (26.03 ± 1.74 vs. 27.93 ± 1.81 cm) and young gestational age (29.7 ± 1.78 vs. 31.3 ± 1.79 weeks) (p < 0.05). Other factors previously associated with ROP that were also observed with statistically significant frequency in our ROP patients were bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intracranial haemorrhage, the need for erythrocyte transfusion or treatment with erythropoietin and sepsis (all p < 0.05). Levels of IGF1 at the 3rd week post‐partum, independent of gestational age at birth, were clearly lower in the group who developed ROP (29.13 vs. 43.16 ng/mL, p < 0.05). A value of 30 ng/mL of IGF1 in the third week post‐partum was found to have a 90% sensitivity in the diagnosis of ROP. A rapid rise in IGF1 levels between the 3rd and 5th weeks appeared to be related to the development of a higher stage of ROP.
Conclusion: Determination of IGF1 serum levels in the 3rd week post‐partum, independent of gestational age at birth, provides a sufficient and reliable prognostic tool and allows the identification of a group of patients at high risk of developing the disease.
The convergent preparation of Janus molecular nanoparticles by thiourea-"clicking" of α,α'-trehalose halves has been implemented; the strategy allows access to macrocyclic derivatives with ...seggregated cationic and lipophilic domains that in the presence of DNA undergo pH-dependent self-assembly into lamellar superstructures, as established by electrochemical, structural (SAXS), microscopical (TEM) and computational techniques, that mediate transfection in vitro and in vivo.
Here we provide a unified theoretical description of two different physical situations in which liquid jets are expelled out of the bulk of a liquid as a consequence of the capillary collapse of a ...void. We demonstrate that the velocity field giving rise to the emergence of these jets can be calculated as the flow generated by a line of sinks with a length and an intensity that can be expressed in terms of the initial cavity radius and the wavelength and velocity of the capillary waves propagating along the cavity walls. The predicted jet speeds, which are expressed through algebraic equations, are in good quantitative agreement with those obtained from experiments and from the simulations of bubbles bursting on a free surface or after the implosion of the crater formed when a drop impacts a liquid pool.
This study aimed to determine the effects of combined resistance training and plyometrics on physical performance in under-15 soccer players. One team (n=20) followed a 6-week resistance training ...program combined with plyometrics plus a soccer training program (STG), whereas another team (n=18) followed only the soccer training (CG). Strength training consisted of full squats with low load (45-60% 1RM) and low-volume (2-3 sets and 4-8 repetitions per set) combined with jumps and sprints twice a week. Sprint time in 10 and 20 m (T10, T20, T10-20), CMJ height, estimated one-repetition maximum (1RMest), average velocity attained against all loads common to pre- and post-tests (AV) and velocity developed against different absolute loads (MPV20, 30, 40 and 50) in full squat were selected as testing variables to evaluate the effects of the training program. STG experienced greater gains (P<0.05) in T20, CMJ, 1RMest, AV and MPV20, 30, 40 and 50 than CG. In addition, STG showed likely greater effects in T10 and T10-20 compared to CG. These results indicate that only 6 weeks of resistance training combined with plyometrics in addition to soccer training produce greater gains in physical performance than typical soccer training alone in young soccer players.
The effect of saline stress on physiological and morphological parameters in Callistemon citrinus plants was studied to evaluate their adaptability to irrigation with saline water. C. citrinus ...plants, grown under greenhouse conditions, were subjected to two irrigation treatments lasting 56 weeks: control (0.8 dS·m−1) and saline (4 dS·m−1). The use of saline water in C. citrinus plants decreased aerial growth, increased the root/shoot ratio and improved the root system (increased root diameter and root density), but flowering and leaf colour were not affected. Salinity caused a decrease in stomatal conductance and evapotranspiration, which may prevent toxic levels being reached in the shoot. Net photosynthesis was reduced in plants subjected to salinity, although this response was evident much later than the decrease in stomatal conductance. Stem water potential was a good indicator of salt stress in C. citrinus. The relative salt tolerance of Callistemon was related to storage of higher levels of Na+ and Cl− in the roots compared with the leaves, especially in the case of Na+, which could have helped to maintain the quality of plants. The results show that saline water (around 4 dS·m−1) could be used for growing C. citrinus commercially. However, the cumulative effect of irrigating with saline water for 11 months was a decrease in photosynthesis and intrinsic water use efficiency, meaning that the interaction of the salinity level and the time of exposure to the salt stress should be considered important in this species.
Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS or MS2) is a widely used approach for structural annotation and identification of metabolites in complex biological samples. The importance of assessing the ...contribution of the precursor ion within an isolation window for MS2 experiments has been previously detailed in proteomics, where precursor ion purity influences the quality and accuracy of matching to mass spectral libraries, but to date, there has been little attention to this data-processing technique in metabolomics. Here, we present msPurity, a vendor-independent R package for liquid chromatography (LC) and direct infusion (DI) MS2 that calculates a simple metric to describe the contribution of the selected precursor. The precursor purity metric is calculated as “intensity of a selected precursor divided by the summed intensity of the isolation window”. The metric is interpolated at the recorded point of MS2 acquisition using bordering full-scan spectra. Isotopic peaks of the selected precursor can be removed, and low abundance peaks that are believed to have limited contribution to the resulting MS2 spectra are removed. Additionally, the isolation efficiency of the mass spectrometer can be taken into account. The package was applied to Data Dependent Acquisition (DDA)-based MS2 metabolomics data sets derived from three metabolomics data repositories. For the 10 LC-MS2 DDA data sets with > ±1 Da isolation windows, the median precursor purity score ranged from 0.67 to 0.96 (scale = 0 to +1). The R package was also used to assess precursor purity of theoretical isolation windows from LC-MS data sets of differing sample types. The theoretical isolation windows being the same width used for an anticipated DDA experiment (±0.5 Da). The most complex sample had a median precursor purity score of 0.46 for the 64,498 XCMS determined features, in comparison to the less spectrally complex sample that had a purity score of 0.66 for 5071 XCMS features. It has been previously reported in proteomics that a purity score of <0.5 can produce unreliable spectra matching results. With this assumption, we show that for complex samples there will be a large number of metabolites where traditional DDA approaches will struggle to provide reliable annotations or accurate matches to mass spectral libraries.
Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to alter insulin synthesis and secretion in both humans and animal models. It has been reported that vitamin D deficiency may predispose to glucose intolerance, ...altered insulin secretion and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Vitamin D replenishment improves glycaemia and insulin secretion in patients with type 2 diabetes with established hypovitaminosis D, thereby suggesting a role for vitamin D in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The presence of vitamin D receptors (VDR) and vitamin D-binding proteins (DBP) in pancreatic tissue and the relationship between certain allelic variations in the VDR and DBP genes with glucose tolerance and insulin secretion have further supported this hypothesis. The mechanism of action of vitamin D in type 2 diabetes is thought to be mediated not only through regulation of plasma calcium levels, which regulate insulin synthesis and secretion, but also through a direct action on pancreatic β-cell function. Therefore, owing to its increasing relevance, this review focuses on the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Although white-matter abnormalities have been reported in middle-aged patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), few data are available on treatment-resistant MDD and the influence of relevant ...variables related to clinical burden of illness is far from being well established.
The present study examined white-matter microstructure in a sample of 52 patients with MDD in different stages (treatment-resistant/chronic MDD, n = 18; remitted-recurrent MDD, n = 15; first-episode MDD, n = 19) and 17 healthy controls, using diffusion tensor imaging with a tract-based spatial statistics approach. Groups were comparable in age and gender distribution, and results were corrected for familywise error (FWE) rate.
Widespread significant reductions of fractional anisotropy (FA) - including the cingulum, corpus callosum, superior and inferior longitudinal fascicule - were evident in treatment-resistant/chronic MDD compared with first-episode MDD and controls (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected). Decreased FA was observed within the ventromedial prefrontal region in treatment-resistant/chronic MDD even when compared with the remitted-recurrent MDD group (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected). Longer duration of illness (β = -0.49, p = 0.04) and higher depression severity (at a trend level: β = -0.26, p = 0.06) predicted lower FA in linear multiple regression analysis at the whole-brain level. The number of previous episodes and severity of symptoms were significant predictors when focused on the ventromedial prefrontal area (β = -0.28, p = 0.04; and β = -0.29, p = 0.03, respectively). Medication effects were controlled for in the analyses and results remained unaltered.
Our findings support the notion that disruptions of white-matter microstructure, particularly in fronto-limbic networks, are associated with resistance to treatment and higher current and past burden of depression.
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