Candidiasis has increased substantially worldwide over recent decades and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, especially among critically ill patients. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a ...metabolic disorder that predisposes individuals to fungal infections, including those related to Candida sp., due to a immunosuppressive effect on the patient. This review aims to discuss the latest studies regarding the occurrence of candidiasis on DM patients and the pathophysiology and etiology associated with these co-morbidities. A comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken. PubMed, Scopus, Elsevier's ScienceDirect, and Springer's SpringerLink databases were searched using well-defined search terms. Predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to classify relevant manuscripts. Results of the review show that DM patients have an increased susceptibility to Candida sp. infections which aggravates in the cases of uncontrolled hyperglycemia. The conclusion is that, for these patients, the hospitalization periods have increased and are commonly associated with the prolonged use of indwelling medical devices, which also increase the costs associated with disease management.
In recent years, significant discoveries related to antimicrobial and adsorption properties of carbon-based nanomaterials have led to new avenues for removal of various biological and ...organic/inorganic contaminants in drinking water. Furthermore, progress in the synthesis of multifunctional nanocomposites paves the way for their application in advanced water treatment system design. This review article describes and compares the adsorptive and antimicrobial properties of four common classes of carbon nanomaterials: single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, graphene, and graphene oxide, as well as some of their most important polymeric and metallic nanocomposites. Barriers for application of these nanomaterials in sustainable water treatment are also addressed.
Dietary choices drive both health and environmental outcomes. Information on diets come from many sources, with nationally recommended diets (NRDs) by governmental or similar advisory bodies the most ...authoritative. Little or no attention is placed on the environmental impacts within NRDs. Here we quantify the impact of nation-specific NRDs, compared with an average diet in 37 nations, representing 64% of global population. We focus on greenhouse gases (GHGs), eutrophication, and land use because these have impacts reaching or exceeding planetary boundaries. We show that compared with average diets, NRDs in high-income nations are associated with reductions in GHG, eutrophication, and land use from 13.0 to 24.8%, 9.8 to 21.3%, and 5.7 to 17.6%, respectively. In upper-middle–income nations, NRDs are associated with slight decrease in impacts of 0.8–12.2%, 7.7–19.4%, and 7.2–18.6%. In poorer middle-income nations, impacts increase by 12.4–17.0%, 24.5–31.9%, and 8.8–14.8%. The reduced environmental impact in high-income countries is driven by reductions in calories (∼54% of effect) and a change in composition (∼46%). The increased environmental impacts of NRDs in low- and middle-income nations are associated with increased intake in animal products. Uniform adoption of NRDs across these nations would result in reductions of 0.19–0.53 Gt CO₂ eq·a−1, 4.32–10.6 Gt
PO
4
3
−
eq·a−1, and 1.5–2.8 million km², while providing the health cobenefits of adopting an NRD. As a small number of dietary guidelines are beginning to incorporate more general environmental concerns, we anticipate that this work will provide a standardized baseline for future work to optimize recommended diets further.
Consumption-based carbon accounts (CBCAs) track how final demand in a region causes carbon emissions elsewhere due to supply chains in the global economic network, taking into account international ...trade. Despite the importance of CBCAs as an approach for understanding and quantifying responsibilities in climate mitigation efforts, very little is known of their uncertainties. Here we use five global multiregional input-output (MRIO) databases to empirically calibrate a stochastic multivariate model of the global economy and its GHG emissions in order to identify the main drivers of uncertainty in global CBCAs. We find that the uncertainty of country CBCAs varies between 2 and 16% and that the uncertainty of emissions does not decrease significantly with their size. We find that the bias of ignoring correlations in the data (that is, independent sampling) is significant, with uncertainties being systematically underestimated. We find that both CBCAs and source MRIO tables exhibit strong correlations between the sector-level data of different countries. Finally, we find that the largest contributors to global CBCA uncertainty are the electricity sector data globally and Chinese national data in particular. We anticipate that this work will provide practitioners an approach to understand CBCA uncertainties and researchers compiling MRIOs a guide to prioritize uncertainty reduction efforts.
infections (candidiasis) are the most prevalent opportunistic fungal infection on humans and, as such, a major public health problem. In recent decades, candidiasis has been associated to
species ...other than
. Moreover, biofilms have been considered the most prevalent growth form of
cells and a strong causative agent of the intensification of antifungal resistance. As yet, no specific resistance factor has been identified as the sole responsible for the increased recalcitrance to antifungal agents exhibited by biofilms. Instead, biofilm antifungal resistance is a complex multifactorial phenomenon, which still remains to be fully elucidated and understood. The different mechanisms, which may be responsible for the intrinsic resistance of
species biofilms, include the high density of cells within the biofilm, the growth and nutrient limitation, the effects of the biofilm matrix, the presence of persister cells, the antifungal resistance gene expression and the increase of sterols on the membrane of biofilm cells. Thus, this review intends to provide information on the recent advances about
species biofilm antifungal resistance and its implication on intensification of the candidiasis.
The structural modification of nanomaterials at the atomic level has the potential to generate tailor‐made components with enhanced performance for a variety of tasks. The chemical versatility of ...graphene has been constantly employed to fabricate multi‐functional doped 2D materials with applications encompassing energy storage and electrocatalysis. Despite the many reports on boron‐ and nitrogen‐doped graphenes, the possible synergy that arises from combining these electronically complementary elements has yet to be fully understood and explored. The techniques used for the fabrication of these nanomaterials are reviewed, along with the most recent reports on the benefits of B, N singly doping and co‐doping in the electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reactions and for energy storage in supercapacitors and lithium secondary batteries. The investigation of bulk co‐doped materials has intrinsic limitations in fully understanding the real role of heteroatoms in the above applications. Ultimately, the design and creation of substituted monolayers with controlled compositions might hold the key for carbon‐based energy‐related applications.
The electrochemical performance of graphene in terms of catalysis and energy storage can be enhanced by heteroatom B, N doping. Different doping routes result in different doping concentrations and B, N chemical environments, and thus a wide distribution of electrochemical performance. Subtle substitution in monolayers is an effective way to unravel the role of heteroatoms.
Candida spp./Bacteria Mixed Biofilms Rodrigues, Maria Elisa; Gomes, Fernanda; Rodrigues, Célia F
Journal of fungi (Basel),
03/2020, Letnik:
6, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The ability to form biofilms is a common feature of microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi. These consortiums can colonize a variety of surfaces, such as host tissues, dentures, and catheters, ...resulting in infections highly resistant to drugs, when compared with their planktonic counterparts. This refractory effect is particularly critical in polymicrobial biofilms involving both fungi and bacteria. This review emphasizes
spp.-bacteria biofilms, the epidemiology of this community, the challenges in the eradication of such biofilms, and the most relevant treatments.
Large-scale restoration programmes in the tropics require large volumes of high quality, genetically diverse and locally adapted seeds from a large number of species. However, scarcity of native ...seeds is a critical restriction to achieve restoration targets. In this paper, we analyse three successful community-based networks that supply native seeds and seedlings for Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado restoration projects. In addition, we propose directions to promote local participation, legal, technical and commercialisation issues for up-scaling the market of native seeds for restoration with high quality and social justice. We argue that effective community-based restoration arrangements should follow some principles: (i) seed production must be based on real market demand; (ii) non-governmental and governmental organisations have a key role in supporting local organisation, legal requirements and selling processes; (iii) local ecological knowledge and labour should be valued, enabling local communities to promote large-scale seed production; (iv) applied research can help develop appropriate techniques and solve technical issues. The case studies from Brazil and principles presented here can be useful for the up-scaling restoration ecology efforts in many other parts of the world and especially in tropical countries where improving rural community income is a strategy for biodiversity conservation and restoration.
Alternative methods of aqueous chromium removal have been of great research interest in recent years as Cr (VI) is a highly toxic compound causing severe human health effects. To achieve better ...removal of Cr (VI), it is essential to understand the chemical reactions that lead to the successful removal of Cr species from the solution. Recent studies have demonstrated that graphene oxide (GO) based polymer beads cannot only adsorb Cr (VI) via electrostatic attractions but also reduce it to Cr (III), which is a much less toxic form of chromium. This conversion and the functional groups involved in this conversion, until now, were not elucidated. In the present study, we employed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to investigate the conversion pathway of Cr (VI) to Cr (III) in graphene-based polymer beads. The results showed that alcoholic groups are converted to carboxylic groups while reducing Cr (VI) to Cr (III). The inclusion of GO in the polymer beads dramatically increased the potential of Cr (VI) uptake and conversion to Cr (III), indicating polymers and nanomaterials containing alcohol groups can remove and convert chromium in water. Other functional groups present in the polymer bead play an important role in adsorption but are not involved in the conversion of Cr (VI) to Cr (III).
This paper investigates whether the framework of fractional quantum mechanics can broaden our perspective of black hole thermodynamics. Concretely, we employ a
space-fractional
derivative (Riesz in ...Acta Math 81:1, 1949) as our main tool. Moreover, we restrict our analysis to the case of a Schwarzschild configuration. From a subsequently modified Wheeler–DeWitt equation, we retrieve the corresponding expressions for specific observables. Namely, the black hole mass spectrum,
M
, its temperature
T
, and entropy,
S
. We find that these bear consequential alterations conveyed through a fractional parameter,
α
. In particular, the standard results are recovered in the specific limit
α
=
2
. Furthermore, we elaborate how generalizations of the entropy-area relation suggested by Tsallis and Cirto (Eur Phys J C 73:2487, 2013) and Barrow (Phys Lett B 808:135643, 2020) acquire a complementary interpretation in terms of a fractional point of view. A thorough discussion of our results is presented.
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