Composting of olive leaves and pomace from a three-phase olive mill plant

The composting of olive leaves and olive pomace from a three-phase olive mill was tested as a method for solid waste reuse. The process was carried out using a compost windrow and mixing olive leaves and pomace at a ratio of 1:2. Compost was retained in the windrow for 60 days during which thermophilic temperatures developed for the first 40 days. The compost was then placed into a closed area to mature for another 60 days. The final product proved to be high quality amendment with C/N 27.1 and high nutrient concentrations (N, 1.79%; P, 0.17%; K, 4.97%; Na, 2.8%). Mature compost presented the highest germination index (198%) reported to date, as the germination index in the majority of previous studies is under 80%. Furthermore, tests revealed that addition of 31.5 tons of compost per ha, could increase lettuce yield by 145%.     

Focus on the research utility of intravascular ultrasound - comparison with other invasive modalities

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is an invasive modality which provides cross-sectional images of a coronary artery. In these images both the lumen and outer vessel wall can be identified and accurate estimations of their dimensions and of the plaque burden can be obtained. In addition, further processing of the IVUS backscatter signal helps in the characterization of the type of the plaque and thus it has been used to study the natural history of the atherosclerotic evolution. On the other hand its indigenous limitations do not allow IVUS to assess accurately stent struts coverage, existence of thrombus or exact site of plaque rupture and to identify some of the features associated with increased plaque vulnerability. In order this information to be obtained, other modalities such as optical coherence tomography, angioscopy, near infrared spectroscopy and intravascular magnetic resonance imaging have either been utilized or are under evaluation. The aim of this review article is to present the current utilities of IVUS in research and to discuss its advantages and disadvantages over the other imaging techniques.     

Inhibin secretion in women with the polycystic ovary syndrome before and after treatment with progesterone

Objectives  

It has been suggested that inhibin secretion is altered in women with the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). However, the contribution of a preceding luteal phase has not been taken into account. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether progesterone in the context of a simulated luteal phase affects basal and FSH-induced inhibin secretion in women with PCOS and elevated LH.     

Stage-specific depletion of myosin A supports an essential role in motility of malarial ookinetes

Functional analysis of Plasmodium genes by classical reverse genetics is currently limited to mutants that are viable during erythrocytic schizogony, the pathogenic phase of the malaria parasite where transfection is performed. Here, we describe a conceptually simple experimental approach to study the function of genes essential to the asexual blood stages in a subsequent life cycle stage by a promoter-swap approach. As a proof of concept we targeted the unconventional class XIV myosin MyoA, which is known to be required for Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoite locomotion and host cell invasion. By placing the corresponding Plasmodium berghei gene, PbMyoA, under the control of the apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) promoter, expression in blood stages is maintained but switched off during transmission to the insect vector, i.e. ookinetes. In those mutant ookinetes gliding motility is entirely abolished resulting in a complete block of life cycle progression in Anopheles mosquitoes. Similar approaches should permit the analysis of gene function in the mosquito forms that are shared with the erythrocytic stages of the malaria parasite.     

FIP/AAPS Joint Workshop Report: Dissolution/In Vitro Release Testing of Novel/Special Dosage Forms

In 2003, the FIP Dissolution Working group published a position paper on dissolution/drug release testing for special/novel dosage forms that represented the scientific opinions of many experts in the field at that time (1). The position paper has supported activities, programs, and decisions in the scientific, technical, and regulatory community. Due to the rapid evolution of new practices and techniques for in vitro testing, the FIP Special Interest Group (SIG) on Dissolution/Drug Release decided to revise the previous paper and added proposals for further harmonization of in vitro release testing practices for different pharmaceutical dosage forms. This article represents the current updates to the previously published paper. This revision has been aligned to coincide with the USP taxonomy including route of administration, intended site of drug release, and dosage form. The revised paper includes information from current literature, expert discussions, and presentations from recent workshops (2,3). The authors acknowledge and expect further updates to be made as additional progress is made in the relevant areas. Thus, comments and additional contributions are welcome and may be considered for the next revision of the position paper.     

Assessing predicted HIV-1 replicative capacity in a clinical setting

HIV-1 replicative capacity (RC) provides a measure of within-host fitness and is determined in the context of phenotypic drug resistance testing. However it is unclear how these in-vitro measurements relate to in-vivo processes. Here we assess RCs in a clinical setting by combining a previously published machine-learning tool, which predicts RC values from partial pol sequences with genotypic and clinical data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. The machine-learning tool is based on a training set consisting of 65000 RC measurements paired with their corresponding partial pol sequences. We find that predicted RC values (pRCs) correlate significantly with the virus load measured in 2073 infected but drug na?ve individuals. Furthermore, we find that, for 53 pairs of sequences, each pair sampled in the same infected individual, the pRC was significantly higher for the sequence sampled later in the infection and that the increase in pRC was also significantly correlated with the increase in plasma viral load and with the length of the time-interval between the sampling points. These findings indicate that selection within a patient favors the evolution of higher replicative capacities and that these in-vitro fitness measures are indicative of in-vivo HIV virus load.     

Literature mining, ontologies and information visualization for drug repurposing

The immense growth of MEDLINE coupled with the realization that a vast amount of biomedical knowledge is recorded in free-text format, has led to the appearance of a large number of literature mining techniques aiming to extract biomedical terms and their inter-relations from the scientific literature. Ontologies have been extensively utilized in the biomedical domain either as controlled vocabularies or to provide the framework for mapping relations between concepts in biology and medicine. Literature-based approaches and ontologies have been used in the past for the purpose of hypothesis generation in connection with drug discovery. Here, we review the application of literature mining and ontology modeling and traversal to the area of drug repurposing (DR). In recent years, DR has emerged as a noteworthy alternative to the traditional drug development process, in response to the decreased productivity of the biopharmaceutical industry. Thus, systematic approaches to DR have been developed, involving a variety of in silico, genomic and high-throughput screening technologies. Attempts to integrate literature mining with other types of data arising from the use of these technologies as well as visualization tools assisting in the discovery of novel associations between existing drugs and new indications will also be presented.