Mounting evidence indicates that periodontitis-related oral bacteria may contribute to gut microbial dysbiosis. This clinical study aimed to explore the oral–gut microbial signatures associated with ...periodontitis and to longitudinally evaluate the effect of periodontal treatment on the oral and gut microbial composition. Stool and saliva samples from generalized stage III/IV periodontitis patients (n = 47) were collected and analyzed by 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing, before and 3 mo after steps I to II of periodontal therapy. Periodontally healthy matched subjects (n = 47) were used as controls. Principal component analysis was carried out to identify oral–gut microbial profiles between periodontitis patients at baseline and healthy subjects; periodontitis samples were longitudinally compared before and after treatment. β-Diversity of gut microbial profiles of periodontitis patients before treatment significantly differed from healthy controls (P < 0.001). Periodontal therapy was associated with a significant change in gut microbiota (P < 0.001), with post-treatment microbial profiles similar to healthy volunteers. A higher abundance of Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, Fusobacterium, and Lachnospiraceae was noted in fecal samples of periodontitis patients at baseline compared to healthy controls. In contrast, Lactobacillus was the only genus more abundant in the latter. Additionally, periodontal therapy led to a parallel reduction in the salivary carriage of periodontal pathobionts, as well as gut Bacteroides, Lachnoclostridium, Lachnospiraceae, Oscillospiraceae, and Ruminococcaceae, to levels similar to healthy controls. Collectively, discriminating oral–gut microbial signatures of periodontitis were found. Periodontal treatment both mitigated oral dysbiosis and altered gut microbial composition, signifying potential broader implications for gastrointestinal health and disease.
Aims
The complex mycobiota that colonizes traditional fermented sausages plays an important role in the organoleptic properties of such products. The aim of the present study was to investigate ...fungal diversity and mycotoxin production during maturation of PGI Salame Piemonte.
Methods and Results
Casing and meat samples were collected at five sampling times from three different batches produced in the same factory and analysed using culture‐dependent and independent approaches. Penicillium nalgiovense, which was deliberately inoculated, and Debaryomyces hansenii were the most dominant taxa in casings. Several other fungi mainly belonging to Penicillium crustosum, Penicillium glabrum, Penicillium nordicum, Cladosporium spp., Candida sake, Candida zeylanoides and Yarrowia divulgata were also identified. The casing mycobiota was compared to that of the meat using a metataxonomic approach and a higher fungal diversity was observed in meat as compared to casings. Mycotoxins and penicillin G were monitored using QTOF LC‐MS and only trace amounts of roquefortine C were detected in two batches.
Conclusions
The present study highlighted the diversity of Salame Piemonte mycobiota and the important contribution of autochthonous fungi to its diversity. The absence of mycotoxins and penicillin G confirmed the high hygienic quality of the studied product regarding fungal and mycotoxin contamination.
Significance and Impact of the Study
For the first time, this study provides insights about Salame Piemonte mycobiota, which together with the bacterial microbiota and Salame Piemonte process specifications, are responsible for the product organoleptic properties.
The two available therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), pirfenidone and nintedanib, slow down but do not halt IPF progression. As such, in the last few years several agents with specific ...molecular targets have been investigated to find a cure forIPF. Pamrevlumab, a recombinant human antibody that binds to connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) has emerged as a potential therapy for IPF and has advanced to phase 3 clinical trials.
The authors offer a backdrop to the current IPF treatment market and describe the chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of pamrevlumab. They summarize the preclinical and early clinical evidence on pamrevlumab and propose ways of progressing this agent further as a potential IPF treatment.
Pamrevlumab was effective and safe in patients in a placebo-controlled phase 2 trial, demonstrating its potential to become an alternative therapeutic option for IPF; however, the feasibility of intravenous administration in clinical practice may be a hurdle to its use as a first-line treatment. Further studies are necessary to assess its effects when administered with pirfenidone or nintedanib and this could open up a new era of combined therapeutic approaches for IPF.
We present a new method for assessing and measuring homophily in networks whose nodes have categorical attributes, namely when the nodes of networks come partitioned into classes (colors). We probe ...this method in two different classes of networks: (i) protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, where nodes correspond to proteins, partitioned according to their functional role, and edges represent functional interactions between proteins (ii) Pokec on-line social network, where nodes correspond to users, partitioned according to their age, and edges respresent friendship between users.Similarly to other classical and well consolidated approaches, our method compares the relative edge density of the subgraphs induced by each class with the corresponding expected relative edge density under a null model. The novelty of our approach consists in prescribing an endogenous null model, namely, the sample space of the null model is built on the input network itself. This allows us to give exact explicit expression for the Formula: see text-score of the relative edge density of each class as well as other related statistics. The Formula: see text-scores directly quantify the statistical significance of the observed homophily via Čebyšëv inequality. The expression of each Formula: see text-score is entered by the network structure through basic combinatorial invariant such as the number of subgraphs with two spanning edges. Each Formula: see text-score is computed in Formula: see text time for a network with n nodes and m edges. This leads to an overall efficient computational method for assesing homophily. We complement the analysis of homophily/heterophily by considering Formula: see text-scores of the number of isolated nodes in the subgraphs induced by each class, that are computed in O(nm) time. Theoretical results are then exploited to show that, as expected, both the analyzed network classes are significantly homophilic with respect to the considered node properties.
Abstract This paper aims to investigate the combined effect of circular beam wobbling and varying laser power on crack formation, weld geometry, microstructure and hardness during remote laser ...welding of AA6082 alloy. AA6082 sheets of 2 mm thickness were joined in overlap weld configuration using wobbling mode remote laser welding at 4 kW, 3 kW and 2.5 kW. Full penetration was achieved in the joints made at 4 kW and 3 kW, with severe crack formation. Welds at 2.5 kW showed partial penetration and no cracks; however, porosity formation was observed. While no significant change was observed in the dendritic structure and compound contents in fusion zones with full penetration, compound clusters dominated by Cu and Si elements were revealed in the seam root region at 2.5 kW (partial penetration). In full penetration welds (4 and 3 kW), the hardness decreased in the center of the fusion zone but increased from the surface to the root zone. However, for the partial penetration weld (2.5 kW), a limited change in the hardness values determined in the same direction was observed.
We study the problem of computing the vitality of edges and vertices with respect to the st$$ st $$‐max flow in undirected planar graphs, where the vitality of an edge/vertex is the st$$ st $$‐max ...flow decrease when the edge/vertex is removed from the graph. This allows us to establish the vulnerability of the graph with respect to the st$$ st $$‐max flow. We give efficient algorithms to compute an additive guaranteed approximation of the vitality of edges and vertices in planar undirected graphs. We show that in the general case high vitality values are well approximated in time close to the time currently required to compute st$$ st $$‐max flow O(nloglogn)$$ O\left(n\mathrm{loglog}n\right) $$. We also give improved, and sometimes optimal, results in the case of integer capacities. All our algorithms work in O(n)$$ O(n) $$ space.
