Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Caracterización del proceso de obtención y separación de ácido láctico a partir de la fermentación de suero lácteo utilizando la tecnología de membranas

The lactic acid is used in the food industry as an acidulant, preservative, flavoring and pH buffering agent or inhibitor of bacterial spoilage. It can be produced by fermentation from food processing industry wastes; among them, the milk whey is stands out because its high quantity of lactose, which is an excellent source for Lactobacillus casei growth. The nanofiltration membranes technology has demonstrated advantages in the area of filtration and separation, it can be applied in order to separate, concentrate and purify organic acids. On the other hand, the mathematical modelling of biological processes is a useful tool for studying systems behavior. The aim of this study was to characterize the lactic acid production and separation by fermentation from milk whey using the membrane technology. The best conditions for Lb. casei (ATCC334) growth were studied using different concentrations of lactose in the supplemented milk whey (20, 30, 40 50 g/L) and different percentages of initial inoculum (1, 5, 10, 20) in two growth stages, exponential and stationary. The fermentations for lactic acid were carried out in batch processes at different pH. The best conditions for Lb. casei growth were 50 g/L with 1% of inoculum in stationary stage or 1% of inoculum in exponential stage, with these conditions 9.3 log (UFC/ml) were reached after 18 h. The fermentation obtained at pH 6.0 attained the highest yield (2.08 g/L h) and the highest quantities of biomass and lactic acid 1.15 g/L y 25.01 ± 0.27 g/L respectively. Two nanofiltration membranes (CK y TFC-SR3) were tested for lactic acid separation and their performance was evaluated trough the lactic acid and lactose recovered in the permeate. The CK membrane had a high recovery for both, lactose (83.70%) and lactic acid (88.73%), otherwise, the TFC-SR3 membrane showed a low lactose recovery (4.11%) and a high lactic acid recovery (75.07%). A mathematical model proposed by Altiok et al., (2006) was applied to the experimental data, this model did not achieve a good fitting for the microbial growth, product formation and substrate consumption, hence, the study of additional models was necessary. The results suggest that supplemented milk whey is a good substrate for Lb. casei growth and lactic acid production and that membrane technology can be used for lactic acid concentration and purification.
Arginine vasopressin-induced glucagon release: interaction with glucose and cyclic AMP- dependent protein kinase

ix CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION I Dissertation Organization I Research Objectives I Background and Literature Review 6 The Pancreas 6 Glucagon 8 Events of exocytosis 9 Synaptic vesicle cycle 9 SNAREs and SNARE-interacting protein 10 Molecular events of exocytosis 11 Regulation of hormone release by arginine vasopressin (AVP) 19 Biosynthesis and action of AVP 19 AVP receptors 19 Signal transduction of V, receptors 20 Effect of glucose on A VP-induced insulin and glucagon release 21 Role of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in exocytosis 22 The interaction between PKA and phospholipase C (PLC) 24 Inhibition of PLC via PKA 25 Stimulation of PLC via PKA 26 Exocytotic proteins activation/deactivation and modulation of exocytosis 27 Mechanism of granules mobilization 27 Granules mobilization due to synapsins activation 28 Phosphorylation of exocytotic proteins 31
Optimal mode of aortic valve replacement in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-which helps patients gain more benefit?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CODP) is highly prevalent in patients with severe aortic stenosis who are candidates for aortic valve replacement. As patients with CODP is generally characterized as a high-risk population for surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is preferred for these patients because it is considered less invasive. Therefore, there is often a relatively high proportion of COPD patients in large TAVR registries, ranging from 14% to 43% (1). However, whether COPD patients benefit more from TAVR than SAVR remain to be demonstrated by data from large sample size.
Self management ability mediates the relationship of diabetes mellitus patients activeness in prolanis with their quality of life

Objectives: Diabetes mellitus is still a problem in the world today, including Indonesia because of the complications it causes. Various forms of health programs were launched to overcome them, one of which was prolanis with the aim of improving the self-management and quality of life of patients. The purpose of the study is to identify self management effect in mediating the relationship of diabetes mellitus patients’ activeness in prolanis with their quality of life. Methods: This is a analytical study with a cross sectional design. The data was collected on May 20 to June 3, 2018, using the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire to 52 respondents. The data were analyzed using path analysis based on linear regression. Results: Results showed that 68% of respondents have good quality of life are those who actively participate in prolanis, 91% of respondents who have a good quality of life are those who have good self-management. According to the path value between the respondents activeness with their quality of life directly was 0.364 (P1=0.364), the relationship between the respondents activeness with their self management was 0.438 (P2=0.438), and the path value between respondents self management with their quality of life directly is 0.355 (P3=0.355). The amount of indirect effect is 0.438 x 0.355 = 0.155 (0.155<0.364) thus the indirect relationship coefficient is still smaller than the direct relationship. Conclusions: The study prove that self-management does not have the ability to mediate the relationship of diabetes mellitus patients activeness in prolanis with their quality of life, or self-management is not a mediator factor but a factor that directly contributes to the quality of life of patients.
Vitamin-D Deficiency: A Neglected Topic Alarms the Health Care Providers

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the vitamin D3 in the study population and to compare it in the male female gender. Methods: This observational study was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017. Total 200 patients were selected through inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studentâ€™s t-test and SPSS version 20 to compare the mean levels of vitamin D3 in male and female gender Results: Male female ratio was found to be 1:1. Vitamin â€“D deficiency was found to be more prevalent in male gender as compared to females. Mean of the serum vitamin â€“D levels were 15.10+9.2ng/dl in men while it was 17.4+13.4 ng/dl in women. 139(69.5%) of the study population was found deficiency <20ng/ml while 31(15.5%) were having insufficient levels<30ng/ml and only 30(15%) showed normal levels 30-50ng/ml. There was a significant difference between the two genders with p value 0.000 Conclusion: Vitamin â€“D deficiency is very common in both genders of all age groups and males are more deficient as compared to female.
MODELOS MULTICRITERIO: UNA APLICACIN A LA SELECCIN DE ALTERNATIVAS PRODUCTIVAS

En este trabajo se desarrollan modelos basados en los metodos de programacion multicriterio: se utiliza la programacion multiobjetivo, complementada con la programacion compromiso y por metas, con el fin de evaluar la optimizacion de mas de un objetivo economico. Estos modelos tienen como proposito predecir ex-ante los resultados economicos, maximizacion del margen bruto y minimizacion del riesgo empresarial, que se observaran en los sistemas horticolas al adoptar nuevas alternativas de produccion, contemplando distintas restricciones agroeconomicas. Se realizo su aplicacion a las pequenas explotaciones horticolas del Cinturon Verde de Cordoba, Argentina, para explicar el cambio de la situacion economica de la empresa al seleccionar y adoptar nuevos planes de produccion, representados por la incorporacion de productos horticolas alternativos para su produccion. La comparacion de cada modelo con la situacion actual de las empresas, en cuanto a las variables involucradas, permite concluir que la adopcion de cualquiera de las propuestas modeladas significara una disminucion importante de la relacion riesgo/margen bruto en valores de hasta un 50% para la estacion estival, y un 66% para la estacion fria. La eleccion de las soluciones que, sin ser optimas seran eficientes, corresponden a una mayor diversificacion de los cultivos a realizar.
Functional and structural characterisation of Mycobacterial Chaperonins

In Mycobacterium tuberculosis there are 2 distinct groEL homologues which encode the chaperonins Cpn60.1 and Cpn60.2, with the latter predicted to be the main house-keeping chaperonin. Phylogenetic analysis has revealed that the genes for the duplicated chaperonins diverged a long time ago. This implies that the duplicated chaperonins have evolved for different cellular functions. Interestingly, while most chaperonins occur as stable large complexes with a characteristic double ring structure of 14 subunits, the Mycobacterial chaperonins are very unstable and appear to form much smaller complexes. Given that the large structures formed by most chaperonins are vital to their mechanism of action, it is unclear why the oligomers are so much less stable in Mycobacteria. In this study I present detailed functional and oligomeric analysis of the M. tuberculosis chaperonins. Using various biological techniques, including complementation assays, site directed mutagenesis, and domain swap experiments; I have been able to demonstrate that both chaperonins have evolved to fulfil alternate functions within the cell. I have shown that while Cpn60.2 is fully functional in E. coli, Cpn60.1 is not. However, M. tuberculosis Cpn60.1 was able to function in M. smegmatis and complement for the loss of its endogenous chaperonin. Domain swap experiments between Cpn60.2 and E. coli GroEL have provided further evidence to support the hypothesis that they function in a similar manner. Using analytical ultracentrifugation on purified proteins, I have been able to show that Cpn60.2 and its chimeric protein do form larger oligomeric complexes in vitro under certain conditions and in the presence of ATP.
Molecular Mechanisms in Ecotoxicology: An Interplay between Environmental Chemistry and Biology

A close collaboration between environmental chemistry and biological sciences is required for a complete understanding of ecotoxicological effects. Bioavailability and uptake of pollutants cannot be regarded as isolated chemical or biological questions. Knowledge of the effective concentrations in the organism or at the target site(s) is essential to link the fate and effects of a chemical and is a prerequisite for quantitative investigation of the modes of toxic action. These modes of action need to be unraveled using whole-organism or in vitro systems in order to be able to develop specific biomarkers and biosensors that can be applied as early warning systems. Our mode-of-action-based approaches, in which chemical and biological analytical tools are combined, should improve the understanding of ecotoxicological effects and should be implemented in the future in risk assessment.
Use of high-throughput DNA data for discovery of unknown genes in Zebrafish

The amounts of genetic data that are produced is steadily increasing. New methods to sequence genetic data are invented and existing methods are refined, resulting in the generation of more and larger datasets. To extract useful data from these growing datasets, the algorithms processing them have to support the new and larger datasets. In this thesis, four zebrafish NanoCAGE datasets have been processed using new algorithms to map the genetic expression to known genes, discover unknown gene candidates and extract the occurrence of five Transcription Factor Binding Sites (TFBSs). Also, the infected and control datasets have been compared to find infection induced genes. An unknown gene candidate has been found that appears to be highly expressed. The number of reads of that gene candidate is in the same order of the number of reads of the most expressed gene and in 3 out of 4 datasets it has more reads. A large number of other gene candidates have been found, of which more than 100 have more than 1000 matched reads. Furthermore, the TATA box TFBS occurs frequently upstream of highly transcribed locations on the genome. In the adult datasets, more than 40% of the locations on the genome with more than 100000 reads have a TATA box at the expected distance from the start of the reads and in the embryo datasets that percentage is more than 25%. In conclusion, the NanoCAGE method and the resulting datasets show to be valuable in the research of genetic expression and genetic regulation mechanisms.
Dietary inflammatory index and risk of gynecological cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Objective There has been growing body of literatures showing that chronic inflammation might play an important role in cancer development. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the association between the dietary inflammation index (DII) score and gynecological cancers. Methods A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science up until October 20, 2018 was carried out to retrieve all related cohort and case-control studies. The summary risk assessments were pooled using random-effects models. The dose-response relationship was estimated by linear relationship model. Results Twelve case-control studies (10,774 cases/15,958 controls) and six prospective cohort studies (330,363 participants/23,133 incident cases) were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled adjusted relative risk (RR) of gynecological cancers for the highest DII category compared to the lowest category was 1.38, (95% confidence intervals [CIs], 1.21–1.56, p<0.001]. A positive dose-response relationship was also noticed. Stratified by study design indicated that, the pooled RRs was significantly higher for case-control studies than cohort studies (p for interaction<0.001), for studies conducted among participants with body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 than participants with BMI <25 kg/m2 (p for interaction=0.026), among participants with ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer than participants with breast cancer (p for interaction = 0.038). Meta-regression analysis further confirmed that study design significantly contributed to inter-study heterogeneity (p<0.001). Conclusion This meta-analysis suggests that elevated DII is independently associated with a higher risk of gynecological cancers, especially patients with ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer and among obese participants.
Avaliação de impacto à saúde da incidência de dengue associada à pluviosidade no município de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo

Resumo Introdução A dengue é considerada um problema de saúde pública. O município de Ribeirão Preto possui condições climáticas e geográficas favoráveis à proliferação do Aedes aegypti , sendo reportadas altas taxas de incidência de dengue. Objetivo Avaliar a relação entre a precipitação pluviométrica e a incidência de casos confirmados de dengue. Método Foi utilizado o coeficiente de correlação de Spearman para a análise da relação entre a pluviosidade e a incidência de dengue. Resultados Encontrou-se associação entre a precipitação e os casos de dengue, com p < 0,01, considerando um intervalo de defasagem (time lag ) que ocorre a partir do primeiro mês e se estende até o quinto mês. Conclusão Estudos como este contribuem para o conhecimento sobre a influência de fatores climáticos na incidência e na dinâmica de transmissão da dengue, sendo essenciais para auxiliar os gestores na tomada de decisão para a prevenção e o controle da doença.
Novel Methods for the Quantification of Dipeptidyl Peptidase 3 (DPP3) Concentration and Activity in Human Blood Samples.

BACKGROUND The ubiquitously expressed dipeptidyl peptidase 3 (DPP3) is involved in protein metabolism, blood pressure regulation, and pain modulation. These diverse functions of DPP3 are attributed to the degradation of bioactive peptides like angiotensin II. However, because of limitations in currently available assays for determination of active DPP3 in plasma, the exact physiological function of DPP3 and its role in the catabolism of bioactive peptides is understudied. Here, we developed 2 assays to specifically detect and quantify DPP3 protein and activity in plasma and validated DPP3 quantification in samples from critically ill patients. METHODS Assay performance was evaluated in a sandwich-type luminometric immunoassay (LIA) and an enzyme capture activity assay (ECA). DPP3 plasma concentrations and activities were detected in a healthy, population-based cohort and in critically ill patients suffering from severe sepsis and septic shock. RESULTS The DPP3-LIA and DPP3-ECA show an almost ideal correlation and very similar and robust performance characteristics. DPP3 activity is detectable in plasma of predominantly healthy subjects with a mean (±SD) of 58.6 (±20.5) U/L. Septic patients show significantly increased DPP3 plasma activity at hospital admission. DPP3 activities further increase in patients with more severe conditions and high mortality risk. CONCLUSION We developed 2 highly specific assays for the detection of DPP3 in plasma. These assays allow the use of DPP3 as a biomarker for the severity of acute clinical conditions and will be of great value for future investigations of DPP3's role in bioactive peptide degradation in general and the angiotensin II pathway in specific.
Apelin

Abstract Apelin, the ligand for the APJ receptor, is involved in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, whether serum apelin can predict the recurrence of AF after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) has not been determined. A prospective cohort study was performed in patients with AF (but without structural heart disease) who were undergoing first-time PVI. Serum apelin-12 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Echocardiographic examination was performed at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months after PVI. Patients were followed up for 6 months after PVI, and the association between baseline apelin-12 and AF recurrence (early recurrence: within 3 months after ablation; late recurrence: 3–6 months after ablation) was analyzed. A total of 61 patients were included in the study. Baseline serum level of apelin-12 was significant lower in patients with early (median [interquartile range]: 1844 [1607–2061] vs 2197 [1895–2455] ng/L, P = .01) and late (1639 [1524–1853] vs 1923 [1741–2303] ng/L, P = .02) AF recurrence compared with patients without these events. Results of Cox stepwise multivariate analysis demonstrated that lower baseline apelin-12 (<2265 ng/L) was independently associated with increased AF recurrence within 6 months after PVI (P < .05). The specificity and positive predictive value of apelin-12 for AF recurrence were significantly higher than those of baseline N-terminal brain proBNP (60.4% vs 28.6%, P < .001; 58.8% vs 34.4%, P = .01), although the sensitivity and negative predictive value were similar. Reduced baseline serum apelin-12 may be an independent risk factor for the recurrence of AF after PVI in patients without structural heart disease.
Ellagic acid stimulates glucose transport in 3T3‐L1 adipocytes and C2C12 myotubes by AMP activated protein kinase mediated pathway

Glucose Transporter 4 (GLUT4) is an insulin sensitive glucose transporter isoform predominantly expressed in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. It is largely confined to intracellular compartments in an unstimulated state and undergoes translocation to the cell surface in insulin dependent and independent manner to facilitate the bulk uptake of glucose. The present work aims at finding novel modulators of GLUT4 translocation and glucose transport from natural products. Our results show that ellagic acid, a plant polyphenol, can stimulate glucose uptake in 3T3‐L1 adipocytes and C2C12 myotubes in a dose dependent manner. GLUT4 translocation assay in 3T3‐L1 cells stably transfected with myc‐GLUT4‐GFP chimera has shown a corresponding increase in GLUT4 translocation upon ellagic acid treatment. Unlike insulin, ellagic acid did not stimulate the Ser‐473 phosphorylation and activation of Akt. However, the compound was found to significantly activate AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) which is another major pathway involved in GLUT4 translocation. Ellagic acid stimulated glucose transport was inhibited by pretreatment with Compound C, an AMPK inhibitor. These findings suggest that ellagic acid mediated GLUT4 translocation occurs though a mechanism distinct from that of insulin and involves AMPK activation. This work was supported by a grant from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India.
Role of biochemical markers in the prediction of osteopenia and osteoporosis in men and women of Sikkim, India

Background: Osteoporosis being a silently progressing disease, the real challenge is to identify the individual at high risk of osteoporosis. Many bone turnover marker have been associated with bone loss even before occurrence of any changes in bone structure. Therefore, this study was aim to evaluate the predictive value of bone turnover marker by correlating with low bone density.Methods: This was a case control study conducted in Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences, India. A total of 300 subjects (150 case and 150 control) both male and female between the age group of 35- 65 were enrolled. We measure one bone formation marker serum osteocalcin and two resorption marker urine hydroxyproline (OHP) and urine N- terminal telopeptides of type I collagen (NTX). Calcaneal QUS device (GE Lunar Achilles Express heel- densitometer) was used to determine the bone density.Results: A significant difference of the bone markers i.e. hydroxyproline, NTx and osteocalcin were observed between cases and control of men and women with P<0.001. These variables statistically significantly predicts bone density with F (3, 71) = 5,671, P= 0.002, R2= 0.193 and F (3, 71) = 5.292, P= 0.002, R2= 0.183 in women and men respectively.Conclusions: Study showed that bone turnover markers are able to predict low bone mass. Resorption markers NTx and OHP were the main predictor in men whereas OHP and formation marker Osteocalcin in women. Therefore, BTM measurement along with BMD can provide useful information about the changes in the bone mass which will help to predict the risk of osteoporosis.
Antibiotic Sensitivity and Histopathological Study of Clostridium perfringens Associated with Necrotic Enteritis in Poultry

Poultry is one of the fastest growing and profitable segments of the agricultural sector in India with around eight percent growth rate per annum. India ranks 3rd in egg production and 7th in chicken meat production in the world (Watt Executive Guide, 2015). Clostridium perfringens is one of the most important food-borne pathogen of humans and animals causing both histotoxic diseases and intestinal infections. It is Gram-positive, anaerobic, straight rod, spore former, found in the soil, dust, sewage, marine sediments and in the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and animals. Based on the production of four International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 11 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com