Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) and the cell sheet (CS) technology improve processes relevant to tissue regeneration. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different PBMT ...parameters on the architecture (histology), protein composition (Western blotting and immunohistochemistry) and ultrastructure scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesized by CSs composed by human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs).
Thawed cells were recharacterized by the expression profile of the surface molecules of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) using flow cytometry. Clonogenic medium supplemented with vitamin C (20 μg/ml) was used for obtaining the CSs. PBMT was performed with continuous-wave diode laser (660 nm, 20 mW, 0.028cm2, 0.71 W/cm2) in punctual and contact mode. The CSs were allocated in 3 experimental groups: Control: no further treatment; PBMT1 4 s, 3 J/cm2 (lower energy density), 0.08 J/point and PBMT2 7 s, 5 J/cm2 (higher energy density), 0.14 J/point. Statistical comparisons were performed (p ≤ .05).
The cells presented the classical immunoprofile of MSCs. Type I and type III collagens and fibronectin were present in the ECM of the CSs. PBMT1 induced higher amount of fibronectin. The overall ultrastructure of the CSs in the PBMT1 was epithelial-like, whereas the PBMT2 leads to CSs with fusiform cells arranged in bundles. TEM identified a more mature ECM and signs of apoptosis and necrosis in the PBMT2 group.
PBMT influence the composition and ultrastructure of the ECM of CSs of hDPSCs. Thus, PBMT, specifically when applied in the lower energy density, could be of importance in the determination of the mechanical quality of CSs, which may favor cell therapy by improving the CS transplantation approach.
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•Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) is able to improve the characteristics of the cell sheet (CS).•PBMT improved extracellular matrix maturation in CSs, which could facilitate the procedures of cell transplantation.•Fibronectin synthesis was increased by PBMT.•Fibronectin possibly influenced the epithelial-like differentiation of the human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) in the CSs.•PBMT applied with the parameter of 5 J/cm2 induced damage to the hDPSCs in the CSs.
Continuous release of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) present in effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is nowadays leading to the adoption of specific measures within ...the framework of the Directive 2000/60/EC (Water Framework Directive). The ozonation process, normally employed for drinking water production, has also proven its potential to eliminate PPCPs from secondary effluents in spite of their low concentrations. However, there is a significant drawback related with the costs associated with its implementation. This lack of studies is especially pronounced regarding the economic valuation of the environmental benefits associated to avoid the discharge of these pollutants into water bodies. For the first time the shadow prices of 5 PPCPs which are ethynilestradiol, sulfamethoxazole, diclofenac, tonalide and galaxolide from treated effluent using a pilot-scale ozonation reactor have been estimated. From non-sensitive areas their values are −73.73; −34.95; −42.20; −10.98; and −8.67 respectively and expressed in €/kg. They represent a proxy to the economic value of the environmental benefits arisen from undischarged pollutants. This paper contributes to value the environmental benefits of implementing post-treatment processes aimed to achieve the quality standards required by the Priority Substances Directive.
•Environmental Benefit Analysis of PPCPs•PPCPs' removal depends on their functional group and molecular structures.•Shadow prices as a proxy of the environmental benefits from ozonation process•HHCB and AHTN have the lowest shadow prices.•The greatest environmental benefit is associated with the removal of DCF.
δ
Scuti stars are intermediate-mass pulsators located in the classical Cepheid instability strip with spectral types ranging from A to F. In the last years, some authors found an amplitude and ...frequency modulation in some of these stars. In our work we have chosen the continuous wavelet transform as the more appropriate tool to perform a time-frequency analysis of the light curves of HD 174936 and HD 174966. We have chosen this tool because, unlike the short time Fourier transform, that uses a fixed windows size, the continuous wavelet transform uses short windows at high frequencies and long windows at low frequencies, making it like an adaptive analysis tool. In order to improve the resolution of the frequencies obtained by the continuous wavelet transform, we have also used the synchrosqueeze algorithm to “focus” the result. Then, we are capable to obtain a measure of the instantaneous frequencies of the signal in a wide range of frequencies. To check our results, we have compared them with the synchrosqueezed continuous wavelet transform of a synthetic signal generated with the frequencies previously obtained by a classical approach. Our results show that some frequencies are stable, at least within the observation run time, although some others show some kind of variation. This is the first time that such variations in the oscillation frequencies of HD 174936 and HD 174966 are reported.
A new family of amino acid containing pyridine–triazolopyridine cores has been prepared by means of a copper catalysed reaction. These compounds exhibit an intense emission that has been employed to ...sense the distance between two carboxylic acids in a linear molecule, from oxalic to glutaric acids.
Using ultra-precise data from space instrumentation, we found that the underlying functions of stellar light curves from some AF pulsating stars are non-analytic, and consequently their Fourier ...expansion is not guaranteed. This result demonstrates that periodograms do not provide a mathematically consistent estimator of the frequency content for this type of variable stars. More importantly, this constitutes the first counterexample against the current paradigm, which considers that any physical process is described by a continuous (band-limited) function that is infinitely differentiable.
•Glyphosate effects on soil biochemical properties were evaluated.•Glyphosate acted as a source of WSC that affected MBC, MBN, DHA and β-Glu values.•Stimulation effect was higher and lasted longer ...for incubated soil.•Soil sampling should be postponed of at least 30 days after glyphosate addition.
In conservation tillage (CT) the use of herbicides is often required. Glyphosate (C3H8NO5P, N-phosphonomethylglycine) is one of the most used herbicides. Since biochemical parameters are often used as soil quality indexes, the stimulation effects on these indexes induced by CT could be misinterpreted due to the required application of herbicide. The objective of this work was to establish the effect of glyphosate on soil biochemical parameters and how long did these effects last on a sandy clay loam Entisol in SW Spain under different tillages.
To test the hypothesis that glyphosate could lead to an erroneous evaluation of biochemical parameters when different tillages are compared, two experiments were carried out in 2011: (i) the first one was conducted under incubation conditions; no-tillage (NT) and reduced tillage (RT) pots with and without herbicide addition were compared, after sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) sowing, during 101 days; (ii) in the second one, samples were directly collected from an experimental farm after wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) sowing; NT and RT soil samples where glyphosate was applied were compared for 60 days with plots under traditional tillage in the absence of glyphosate.
Biochemical parameters such as water soluble carbon (WSC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), as well as dehydrogenase (DHA) and β-glucosidase (β-Glu) activities were analyzed in both experiments.
Results showed that glyphosate acted as a source of organic carbon in both experiments, however, stimulation effects on MBC, MBN, DHA and β-Glu were more evident and lasted longer for the incubated samples. In this experiment, the maximum values for MBC, MBN and DHA were registered between 18 and 37 days after application, while higher β-Glu values under reduced tillage were still registered after 101 days. Those effects were less noticeable in the on-field experiment.
Under our experimental conditions (Entisol, Mediterranean condition, rainfed agriculture, wheat–sunflower–fodder pea rotation), an interval of at least 30 days between glyphosate application and soil sampling should be adopted as a standard to avoid data misinterpretation. Differences in glyphosate metabolism are expected for different conditions and crops and should be evaluated case by case.
► The soil C management proxies increased by 15.9% for TOC and 37.4% for AC TOC
−1 in the reduced tillage. ► Reduced tillage caused an improvement in microbial activity between 28.4 and 42.9% at 0–5
...cm depth. ► Impact of soil C management was better correlated with soil microbial properties.
Long-term field experiments are important to provide information about how soil carbon (C) dynamics is affected by soil tillage systems. In this study we directly diagnose the influence of the topsoil's (0–5
cm depth) C concentration on soil quality in an Entisol under Mediterranean conditions, testing a new statistical method. The objective was to estimate the impact of conservation tillage (RT) as a C management practice, versus a traditional tillage (TT) system on biophysical soil properties. We analyzed the impact of the soil C management on biological (microbial biomass C, dehydrogenase and β-glucosidase activities), physical soil properties (aggregates stability, conductive mean pore diameter, aggregation index) and CO
2 fluxes. The concentrations for total organic carbon (TOC), the active carbon (AC) normalised by the total carbon (AC TOC
−1), served as a combined proxy for the soil C management related to the tillage system. Soil C management accounted for 0–46% of the change of biophysical soil properties in RT versus TT. The RT led to a C increase (18.9%) of microbial activities, especially in the top 0–5
cm depth. Related to the physical soil properties, less C in TT led to a lower aggregation index, although this tendency was not observed for other physical parameters. The impact of soil C management was better correlated with soil microbial than with the physical properties. Our analysis directly quantified for the first time that the increase in the soil's carbon concentration could only explain a small fraction of the beneficial change in biophysical soil properties due to RT. In general the RT contributed to the long-term sustainability of the agroecosystem by improving biological and physical soil characteristics under dryland semi-arid Mediterranean conditions.
Context. It is known that the observed distribution of frequencies in CoRoT and Kepler δ Scuti stars has no parallelism with any theoretical model. Pre-whitening is a widespread technique in the ...analysis of time series with gaps from pulsating stars located in the classical instability strip, such as δ Scuti stars. However, some studies have pointed out that this technique might introduce biases in the results of the frequency analysis. Aims. This work aims at studying the biases that can result from pre-whitening in asteroseismology. The results will depend on the intrinsic range and distribution of frequencies of the stars. The periodic nature of the gaps in CoRoT observations, only in the range of the pulsational frequency content of the δ Scuti stars, is shown to be crucial to determining their oscillation frequencies, the first step in performing asteroseismology of these objects. Hence, here we focus on the impact of pre-whitening on the asteroseismic characterization of δ Scuti stars. Methods. We select a sample of 15 δ Scuti stars observed by the CoRoT satellite, for which ultra-high-quality photometric data have been obtained by its seismic channel. In order to study the impact on the asteroseismic characterization of δ Scuti stars we perform the pre-whitening procedure on three datasets: gapped data, linearly interpolated data, and data with gaps interpolated using Autoregressive and Moving Average models (ARMA). Results. The different results obtained show that at least in some cases pre-whitening is not an efficient procedure for the deconvolution of the spectral window. Therefore, in order to reduce the effect of the spectral window to a minimum, in addition to performing a pre-whitening of the data, it is necessary to interpolate with an algorithm that is aimed to preserve the original frequency content.
A multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was developed to simultaneously detect bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), bean common mosaic necrotic virus (BCMNV), and bean ...golden yellow mosaic virus (BGYMV) from common bean leaves dried with silica gel using a single total nucleic acid extraction cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method. A mixture of five specific primers was used to amplify three distinct fragments corresponding to 272 bp from the
gene of BGYMV as well as 469 bp and 746 bp from the
gene of BCMV and BCMNV, respectively. The three viruses were detected in a single plant or in a bulk of five plants. The multiplex RT-PCR was successfully applied to detect these three viruses from 187 field samples collected from 23 municipalities from the states of Guanajuato, Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico. Rates of single infections were 14/187 (7.5%), 41/187 (21.9%), and 35/187 (18.7%), for BGYMV, BCMV, and BCMNV, respectively; 29/187 (15.5%) samples were co-infected with two of these viruses and 10/187 (5.3%) with the three viruses. This multiplex RT-PCR assay is a simple, rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for detecting these viruses in the common bean and can be used for routine molecular diagnosis and epidemiological studies.
The preparation of transparent porous materials can offer a different access towards the study of molecules under solid confined space. Metal-organic frameworks represent a unique opportunity due to ...their tunable pore size, however aromatic linkers present strong absorption and reduce the transparency. Herein, we report the first example of a MOF with bicyclic organic dicarboxylic linkers and its use as a solid solvent.
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