Electrical conductivity dispersion as a probe of membrane modifications in mouse polyomavirus infected cells in culture

In this report we investigate the inhibition of membrane conductivity, due to the murine polyomavirus infection in permissive cells in culture. We define experimental conditions to have reproducible results and demonstrate that the intensity of the effects on the cell membrane, depends upon the virus titer used in the infection. Finally, the virus dependent effects disappear if the infection is performed in the presence of a drug that inhibits polymavirus DNA replication.     

Hume and the argument for biological design

There seems to be a widespread conviction — evidenced, for example, in the work of Mackie, Dawkins and Sober — that it is Darwinian rather than Humean considerations which deal the fatal logical blow to arguments for intelligent design. I argue that this conviction cannot be well-founded. If there are current logically decisive objections to design arguments, they must be Humean — for Darwinian considerations count not at all against design arguments based upon apparent cosmological fine-tuning. I argue, further, that there are good Humean reasons for atheists and agnostics to resist the suggestion that apparent design — apparent biological design and/or apparent cosmological fine-tuning — establishes (or even strongly supports) the hypothesis of intelligent design.     

Evaluation of Drugs for Treating Obesity

Criteria for the evaluation of new drugs to treat obesity are important as guides for designing clinical trials to test these agents. These criteria must be developed in relation to the realities of obesity, which is a chronic disease associated with morbidity and mortality that is increased by visceral fat deposits. The observation that patients regain weight after stopping drug treatment for obesity argues for the proposition that drugs work only when taken and NOT that the drugs are ineffective. The analogy between the development of treatments for obesity to those for the treatment of hypertension is used to highlight potential areas for new developments. Several features of an ideal drug for the treatment of obesity are suggested. Criteria for evaluating new drugs include both primary and secondary endpoints. The primary endpoint for an anti-obesity drug should be weight loss, possibly by category of success. Losses of total body fat or visceral fat might be alternative primary endpoints. Secondary endpoints include reduction in risk factors for associated diseases and improvement in the quality of life. In trials where vigorous placebo designs including highly aggressive behavior modification or very-low-calorie diets were used, it may be difficult or impossible to detect a response to a drug.     

Predicting mean and variance of all possible lines and hybrids from designs with partially inbred progenies

Two-factor mating designs at consecutive S_n and S_(n+1) levels (S₀ and S₁ S₁ and S₂, or F₂ and F₃) allow estimation of all components of the variation among homozygous lines and F₁ hybrids that can be derived from a given population. They also allow for the prediction of the mean of these lines and single-cross hybrids. Some tests for the presence of epistasis are possible at the levels of means and of variances. Such mating designs can be very useful for predicting the value of the best possible lines or the best possible F₁ hybrids when it is difficult to produce, at an experimental level for exploratory purposes, either lines or hybrids.     

Analysis of parameters about useful life extension in 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy

One of the approaches followed by the circular economy (CE) to achieve sustainability through design is product life extension. Extending the life of products to make them useful for as long as possible is a means to reduce waste production and materials consumption, as well as the related impacts. For designers, conceptualizing products in a way that allows them to be used for longer is a challenge, and assessing how well they extend their lifespan can be helpful when it comes to choosing the best proposal. In this paper, 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy are studied to determine how many of them consider parameters related to life extension and which can be applied in the early stages of design. The results of the analysis show that most of the existing tools and methods are applicable to developed products, and only a few of them take into account parameters related to extending the useful life. Of the 70 tools and methods, only 14 include some parameter related to life extension and are applicable to concepts. CE toolkit, Eco-design PILOT, CE Designer, Circularity Assessment tool, Circularity Potential Indicator and Circular Design Tools take into consideration eight or more parameters to assess life extension in concepts. This will help designers select the most appropriate and will indicate the need for more complete tools to consider useful life extension in the early stages of design and thus enhance the selection of more sustainable products.     

Methods to identify protein targets of metal-based drugs

Metal-based anticancer agents occupy a distinct chemical space due to their particular coordination geometry and reactivity. Despite the initial DNA-targeting paradigm for this class of compounds, it is now clear that they can also be tuned to target proteins in cells, depending on the metal and ligand scaffold. Since metallodrug discovery is dominated by phenotypic screenings, tailored proteomics strategies were crucial to identify and validate protein targets of several investigative and clinically advanced metal-based drugs. Here, such experimental approaches are discussed, which showed that metallodrugs based on ruthenium, gold, rhenium and even platinum, can selectively and specifically target proteins with clear-cut down-stream effects. Target identification strategies are expected to support significantly the mechanism-driven clinical translation of metal-based drugs.     

Environmental conditions during glycerol bioconversion affect 3-hydroxypropionic acid bioproduction by Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938

3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is a platform molecule whose biological production was carried out by the bacterium Limosilactobacillus reuteri according to a two-step process: first, a growth phase in batch mode on glucose, then a glycerol bioconversion into 3-HP in fed-batch mode. With the objective of improving 3-HP bioproduction, this study aimed at defining the operating conditions during the bioconversion phase that increases the bioproduction performance. A central composite rotatable design allowed testing various pH levels and specific glycerol feeding rates. By establishing response surfaces, optimal conditions have been identified that were different depending on the considered output variable (final 3-HP quantity, 3-HP production yield and production rate). Of them, 3-HP final quantity and 3-HP production yield were maximized at pH 6.0 and at specific glycerol feeding rates of 60 and 55 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively. The specific 3-HP production rate was the highest at the upper limit of the specific substrate feeding rate (80 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹) but was not affected by the pH. An additional experiment was carried out at pH 6.0 and a specific glycerol feeding rate of 80 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹ to validate the previous observations. In conclusion, the results showed a significant improvement of 3-HP concentration by 13%, of specific production rate by 34% and of 3-HP volumetric productivity by 39%, as compared to the initial values.     

Antibacterial Compound Isolation and Characterization from the Plant Cynotis axillaris Schult

A novel flavone glycoside was isolated from the methanolic extract of Cynotis axillaris Schult. Various analysis and characterization techniques were used to determine its structure and properties. The compound exhibited a melting point range of 231–232 °C and had a molecular formula of C₂₇H₃₀O₁₄. Several spectral characterization techniques were employed to establish the isolated compound's structure. These included UV-visible spectroscopy, FT-IR, LC-ESI-MS, and NMR spectroscopy. Based on these analyses, the structure of the isolated compound was determined to be 5,7,4’-trihydroxyflavone-8-α-L-rhamnopyranoside-4’-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl. This structure indicates that it is a flavone glycoside consisting of a flavone (5,7,4’-trihydroxyflavone) moiety attached to a sugar molecule (galactopyranosyl) at position 4’, which further bears a rhamnose group at position 8 of the flavone. In addition, to the structural characterization, the compound also demonstrated significant antibacterial efficacy against various bacterial pathogens, including Gram-positive bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis MTCC441 and Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli MTCC1098, Proteus vulgarize MTCC426, and Salmonella Typhimurium MTCC3224. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated by measuring the zone of inhibition in millimetres, which provides an indication of the compound's ability to inhibit bacterial growth. The study successfully identified and characterized a novel flavone glycoside from Cynotis axillaris Schult. and its antimicrobial activity.     

Genetics of size and growth rate through sexual maturity in freshwater-reared coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

Genetic parameters of size through sexual maturity have been relatively unexplored for Pacific salmon. In this study, individually tagged coho salmon were raised in freshwater, and the heritabilities of size and growth rate were estimated at several intervals between 13 and 24 months of age (spawning). Heritability estimates for size were moderate to high from 13 to 19 months of age, ranging from 0.36 to 0.50, and lower from 21 months to spawning at 24 months, ranging from 0.17 to 0.32. Heritabilities of specific growth rates estimated over 3-month intervals were moderate from 16 to 21 months of age, ranging from 0.21 to 0.34. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between sizes measured at different ages were moderate to high, ranging from about 0.7 to 1.0. Correlations between growth rate and size indicated that the larger fish were the fastest growing between 16 and 19 months of age and were slower growing between 19 and 21 months of age.