After the discovery of stripelike order in lanthanum-based copper oxide superconductors, charge-ordering instabilities were observed in all cuprate families. However, it has proven difficult to ...distinguish between unidirectional (stripes) and bidirectional (checkerboard) charge order in yttrium- and bismuth-based materials. We used resonant x-ray scattering to measure the two-dimensional structure factor in the superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+y in reciprocal space. Our data reveal the presence of charge stripe order (i.e., locally unidirectional density waves), which may represent the true microscopic nature of charge modulation in cuprates. At the same time, we find that the well-established competition between charge order and superconductivity is stronger for charge correlations across the stripes than along them, which provides additional evidence for the intrinsic unidirectional nature of the charge order.
The world tendency in last years is to restrict the use of fossil fuels and replace them partially or totally by renewable fuels. Accordingly, biodiesel is being studied as one of the main ...alternatives and the production and consumption of this pure biofuel and its binary blends with fossil diesel have been markedly grown. Thus, the present work evaluated the influence of biodiesel concentration on such blends when mixed to diesel in 5, 15, 25 and 50 volume percentages. For each blend, both methanol and ethanol biodiesels were investigated. The biodiesel samples were physicochemically characterized. Their rheological behavior was analyzed. It was observed that the biodiesel enrichment leads to an acceptable increase in the viscosity and to a decrease in the volatilization of the binary blends. The viscosity was also shown to be temperature-dependent, as well as the fatty acids chain length and unsaturation.
Nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are key molecules in resistance to pathogens. Little is known about their role in pathogenesis of periapical lesions. To address this issue, we ...induced periapical lesions in mice lacking nitric oxide synthase (iNOS-/-) or phagocyte oxidase (PHOX-/-). iNOS-/- mice expressed higher levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, RANK, RANKL, and MCP-1 than C57BL/6 and PHOX-/-. Apical thickening of the periodontal ligament was also greater in iNOS-/- compared with other groups. Interestingly, ROS production did not interfere in periapical lesion progression, but seemed to be essential for the appearance of multinucleated TRAP-positive cells. Thus, periapical lesion progression in iNOS-/- was associated with an imbalance of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNF-α), bone-resorptive modulators (RANK and RANKL), and MCP-1. We conclude that NO, but not ROS, controls progression of bone resorption in a murine experimental model of apical periodontitis.
Understanding compartmentalized immune responses in target organs is crucial for elucidating the pathogenesis of various diseases. However, obtaining samples from affected vital organs often poses ...safety challenges. In this study, we aimed to investigate potential correlations between the levels of disease-associated immune molecules in the bloodstream with their gene expression profiles in the hearts of patients suffering from Chagas Cardiomyopathy (CCC). This debilitating and often fatal condition is caused by infection with the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi.
Blood samples were analyzed using the Bio-Plex platform. Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to determine gene expression profile in heart tissue from CCC and non-Chagas controls (CTRL).
Elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines were detected in the plasma of CCC patients, and these levels correlated with clinical indicators of deteriorating cardiac function. Notably, 75% of the soluble factors assessed in the plasma exhibited a consistent relationship with their gene expression levels in the cardiac tissue of CCC patients. Analysis of interactions and signaling pathways related to these molecules revealed an overrepresentation of inflammatory pathways in both blood and heart compartments. Moreover, we identified that differentially expressed genes in CCC cardiac tissue were primarily associated with T-cell signaling pathways and correlated with the presence of CD8+ T cells in the myocardium.
Our findings establish a strong correlation between relevant immune molecules and their signaling pathways in both the blood and heart tissue in CCC. This validates the use of blood as a non-invasive medium for understanding immunopathology and identifying markers for cardiac dysfunction in Chagas disease.
Nowadays, leishmaniasis constitutes a public health issue in more than 88 countries, affecting mainly people from the tropics, subtropics, and the Mediterranean area. Every year, the prevalence of ...this infectious disease increases, with the appearance of 1.5-2 million new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis and 500,000 cases of visceral leishmaniasis, endangering approximately 350 million people worldwide. Therefore, the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment makes the discovery and development of new antileishmanial therapies one of the focuses for the scientific community that, in association with WHO, hopes to eradicate this disease shortly. This paper is intended to highlight the relevance of nitrogen- and oxygen-containing tricyclic heterocycles, particularly acridine and xanthene derivatives, for the development of treatments against leishmaniasis. Thus, in this review, a thorough compilation of the most promising antileishmanial acridine and xanthene derivatives is performed from both natural and synthetic origins. Additionally, some structure-activity relationship studies are also depicted and discussed to provide insight into the optimal structural features responsible for these compounds' antileishmanial activity.
•K. xylinus BPR 2001 was cultured under static conditions using low cost substrates.•BNC production was optimized by Response Surface Methodology, a maximum of 6.4 ± 0.54 g/L being reached.•Optimum ...medium composition %(m/v): molasses 5.38, CSL 1.91, ammonium sulphate 0.63, ethanol 1.38%(v/v).
This work aimed at the optimization of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) production by static culture, using Komagataeibacter xylinus BPR 2001 (K. xylinus). Response surface methodology - central composite design was used to evaluate the effect of inexpensive and widely available nutrient sources, namely molasses, ethanol, corn steep liquor (CSL) and ammonium sulphate, on BNC production yield. The optimized parameters for maximum BNC production were % (m/v): molasses 5.38, CSL 1.91, ammonium sulphate 0.63, disodium phosphate 0.270, citric acid 0.115 and ethanol 1.38% (v/v). The experimental and predicted maximum BNC production yields were 7.5 ± 0.54 g/L and 6.64 ± 0.079 g/L, respectively and the experimental and predicted maximum BNC productivity were 0.829 ± 0.046 g/L/day and 0.734 ± 0.079 g/L/day, after 9 days of static culture fermentation, at 30 °C. The effect of surface area and culture medium depth on production yield and productivity were also studied. BNC dry mass production increased linearly with surface area, medium depth and fermentation time. So long as nutrients were still available in the culture media, BNC mass productivity was constant. The results show that a high BNC production yield can be obtained by static culture of K. xylinus BPR 2001 using a low-cost medium. These are promising conditions for the static industrial scale BNC production, since as compared to agitated bioreactors, higher productivities may be reached, while avoiding high capital and operating costs.
The consumption of probiotic-enriched dairy products has been associated with many health benefits, including anti-hyperglycemic activity. The effect on health is dependent on the type of probiotic ...culture used and the dairy product consumed. This study evaluated the effect of different probiotic-enriched dairy matrices (Minas Frescal cheese, Prato cheese, and whey dairy beverage) containing Lactobacillus casei on in vitro and in vivo anti-hyperglycemic activity. For this purpose, in vitro anti-hyperglycemic activity was determined by the inhibition of α-glucosidase and α-amylase activities, and a human study was performed with healthy individuals (n = 15, consumption of bread as a control; bread + Minas Frescal cheese; bread + Prato cheese; bread + dairy beverage) to assess the effects of different probiotic foods on postprandial glycemia. In vitro data showed that Prato cheese presented the highest lipid (36.9 g/100 g) and protein (26.5 g/100 g) contents as well as the highest α-amylase (60.7%) and α-glucosidase (52.6%) inhibition. The consumption of Prato cheese resulted in a lesser increase in blood glucose level (13 mg/dL) compared with the consumption of bread alone (19 mg/dL), Minas Frescal cheese (20 mg/dL), and whey dairy beverage (30 mg/dL), with glycemic indices similar to that observed for the control. The present results demonstrated a good correlation between in vitro and in vivo data, in which the type of dairy matrix affects the anti-hyperglycemic activity. It is concluded that the consumption of probiotic Prato cheese can contribute to the reduction of postprandial glycemia in healthy individuals.
In the present study, two extracts from the aerial parts of the endemic species
were analyzed for the first time by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a diode array detector ...and an electrospray mass spectrometer (UHPLC-DAD-ESI/MS) method in order to identify and quantify their phenolic compounds. These extracts' antioxidant, α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory activities were also evaluated. UHPLC-DAD-ESI/MS allowed the identification of 28 and 20 compounds in the ethanolic and aqueous extracts, respectively; among them, 5-
-caffeoylquinic acid was the most abundant in both extracts. The biological assay results indicate that the species
, besides its high antioxidant power, is also potentially useful for inhibiting the α-glucosidase enzyme. In both antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory assays, the aqueous extract exhibited the most promising results, significantly better than the standards used as positive controls.
The presence of pharmaceutic compounds has been widely detected in water and wastewater due to the increase in their production and consumption. Since conventional treatments are not able to totally ...remove these microcontaminants, more efficient technologies, such as adsorption, must be investigated. This study aimed to evaluate the adsorption of diclofenac sodium (DS) onto commercial organoclay (Spectrogel® Type C) in static system. Process optimization was performed through Central Composite Design (CCD) and the adsorbent mass of 0.5 g and agitation speed of 200 rpm were selected as the optimum conditions. The variable initial concentration of DS was not statistically significant. Pseudo-first order model showed the best correlation to kinetic experimental data and the investigation of adsorption mechanism revealed that external mass transference was the main rate-controlling step. Equilibrium data obtained at 15 °C and at 30 °C were best described by Freundlich isotherm model and at 50 °C by Temkin isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity from Langmuir was of 0.133 mmol/L at 50 °C. Thermodynamically, the process is spontaneous and endothermic. Characterization analysis depicted that DS adsorption takes place on the surface of Spectrogel, which is not significantly modified by the process.
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•Adsorption of diclofenac sodium onto Spectrogel Type C organoclay was examined.•The variables agitation speed and adsorbent mass are statistically significant.•The external film diffusion is the main rate-controlling mechanism.•The process is spontaneous, endothermic and occurs on the organoclay's surface.•No significant modifications on the organoclay are verified after adsorption.
Each successive generation of X-ray machines has opened up new frontiers in science, such as the first radiographs and the determination of the structure of DNA. State-of-the-art X-ray sources can ...now produce coherent high-brightness X-rays of greater than kiloelectronvolt energy and promise a new revolution in imaging complex systems on nanometre and femtosecond scales. Despite the demand, only a few dedicated synchrotron facilities exist worldwide, in part because of the size and cost of conventional (accelerator) technology. Here we demonstrate the use of a new generation of laser-driven plasma accelerators, which accelerate high-charge electron beams to high energy in short distances, to produce directional, spatially coherent, intrinsically ultrafast beams of hard X-rays. This reduces the size of the synchrotron source from the tens of metres to the centimetre scale, simultaneously accelerating and wiggling the electron beam. The resulting X-ray source is 1,000 times brighter than previously reported plasma wigglers and thus has the potential to facilitate a myriad of uses across the whole spectrum of light-source applications.
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