Search results for "AIR"
showing 10 items of 13227 documents
Inhibition of STAT3 with the generation 2.5 antisense oligonucleotide, AZD9150, decreases neuroblastoma tumorigenicity and increases chemosensitivity
2017
Abstract Purpose: Neuroblastoma is a pediatric tumor of peripheral sympathoadrenal neuroblasts. The long-term event-free survival of children with high-risk neuroblastoma is still poor despite the improvements with current multimodality treatment protocols. Activated JAK/STAT3 pathway plays an important role in many human cancers, suggesting that targeting STAT3 is a promising strategy for treating high-risk neuroblastoma. Experimental Design: To evaluate the biologic consequences of specific targeting of STAT3 in neuroblastoma, we assessed the effect of tetracycline (Tet)-inducible STAT3 shRNA and the generation 2.5 antisense oligonucleotide AZD9150 which targets STAT3 in three representat…
Cellular Injuries in Cronobacter sakazakii CIP 103183T and Salmonella enterica Exposed to Drying and Subsequent Heat Treatment in Milk Powder
2018
International audience; Because of the ability of foodborne pathogens to survive in low-moisture foods, their decontamination is an important issue in food protection. This study aimed to clarify some of the cellular mechanisms involved in inactivation of foodborne pathogens after drying and subsequent heating. Individual strains of Salmonella Typhimurium, Salmonella Senftenberg, and Cronobacter sakazakii were mixed into whole milk powder and dried to different water activity levels (0.25 and 0.58); the number of surviving cells was determined after drying and subsequent thermal treatments in closed vessels at 90 and 100 degrees C, for 30 and 120 s. For each condition, the percentage of unc…
Telomere Length Determines TERRA and R-Loop Regulation through the Cell Cycle
2017
Maintenance of a minimal telomere length is essential to prevent cellular senescence. When critically short telomeres arise in the absence of telomerase, they can be repaired by homology-directed repair (HDR) to prevent premature senescence onset. It is unclear why specifically the shortest telomeres are targeted for HDR. We demonstrate that the non-coding RNA TERRA accumulates as HDR-promoting RNA-DNA hybrids (R-loops) preferentially at very short telomeres. The increased level of TERRA and R-loops, exclusively at short telomeres, is due to a local defect in RNA degradation by the Rat1 and RNase H2 nucleases, respectively. Consequently, the coordination of TERRA degradation with telomere r…
Demo
2017
We present an innovative smartphone-centric tracking system for indoor and outdoor environments, based on the joint utilization of dead-reckoning and computer vision (CV) techniques. The system is explicitly designed for visually impaired people (although it could be easily generalized to other users) and it is built under the assumption that special reference signals, such as painted lines, colored tapes or tactile pavings are deployed in the environment for guiding visually impaired users along pre-defined paths. Thanks to highly optimized software, we are able to execute the CV and sensor-fusion algorithms in run-time on low power hardware such as a normal smartphone, precisely tracking …
Formation and Characterization of Early Bacterial Biofilms on Different Wood Typologies Applied in Dairy Production
2018
ABSTRACT The main hypothesis of this work was that Sicilian forestry resources are suitable for the production of equipment to be used in cheese making and indigenous milk lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are able to develop stable biofilms providing starter and nonstarter cultures necessary for curd fermentation and cheese ripening, respectively. Hence, the present work was carried out with deproteinized whey to evaluate LAB biofilm formation on different woods derived from tree species grown in Sicily. Microbiological and scanning electron microscopy analyses showed minimal differences in microbial levels and compositions for the neoformed biofilms. The specific investigation of Salmonella spp.…
Effect of the inclusion of fresh lemon pulp in the diet of lactating ewes on the properties of milk and cheese
2017
This study investigated the effects of fresh lemon pulp (FLP), as a natural antioxidant in the diet, on the intake of feed and the production of milk and cheese of Valle del Belice lactating ewes during the hot summer in Sicily. A total of 15 second-lambing ewes, kept individually in 3 × 3 m pens, were divided into 3 homogeneous groups fed with 3 diets in a 3 × 3 Latin square design, with 3 experimental phases of 21 days each. The diets were: mixed hay ad libitum plus 600 g/day of concentrate (FLP0); mixed hay ad libitum plus 400 g/day of concentrate and 1 kg/day of FLP (FLP1); and mixed hay ad libitum plus 200 g/day of concentrate and 2 kg/day of FLP (FLP2). Nine experimental Pecorino chee…
Legume grain-based supplements in dairy sheep diet: Effects on milk yield, composition and fatty acid profile
2016
With the aim to find protein sources that are free of genetically modified organisms, the effects of legume grain-based concentrates, used as alternatives of a mixed concentrate feed containing soybean, were evaluated on sheep milk production. Twelve lactating ewes were divided into four groups, fed hay and, according to a 4 × 4 Latin square design, supplied with 800 g/day of a commercial mixed concentrate feed (MCF) containing maize and soybean, or the same amount of isoprotein concentrates consisting of chickpea (CH), faba bean (FB), or pea (PE) mixed with barley. The ewes ingested more of the concentrates with legume grains than the MCF (702, 702, 678 vs 587 g/day DM for CH, FB, PE and M…
Effects of different genotypes at the CSN3 and LGB loci on milk and cheese-making characteristics of the bovine Cinisara breed
2017
The Cinisara is an autochthonous Sicilian bovine breed reared mainly for production of Caciocavallo Palermitano, a typical stretched-curd cheese. The distribution of A and B alleles at both the β-lactoglobulin (LGB) and κ-casein (CSN3) loci in Cinisara cows and their influence on milk traits and cheese yield and composition were analysed. The LGB alleles are associated with significantly different effects on whey protein level (lower for BB genotype, P < 0.01), and casein index (higher value for BB genotype, P < 0.001), while CSN3 alleles were associated with significantly different effects on milk yield and coagulation properties; the BB genotype showed higher values for milk yield (…
A Deep Learning Model for Epigenomic Studies
2016
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that does not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence, i.e. a change in phenotype not involved by a change in genotype. At least three main factor seems responsible for epigenetic change including DNA methylation, histone modification and non-coding RNA, each one sharing having the same property to affect the dynamic of the chromatin structure by acting on Nucleosomes posi- tion. A nucleosome is a DNA-histone complex, where around 150 base pairs of double-stranded DNA is wrapped. The role of nucleosomes is to pack the DNA into the nucleus of the Eukaryote cells, to form the Chromatin. Nucleosome positioning plays an imp…
Human platelet-rich plasma improves the nesting and differentiation of human chondrocytes cultured in stabilized porous chitosan scaffolds
2017
[EN] The clinical management of large-size cartilage lesions is difficult due to the limited regenerative ability of the cartilage. Different biomaterials have been used to develop tissue engineering substitutes for cartilage repair, including chitosan alone or in combination with growth factors to improve its chondrogenic properties. The main objective of this investigation was to evaluate the benefits of combining activated platelet-rich plasma with a stabilized porous chitosan scaffold for cartilage regeneration. To achieve this purpose, stabilized porous chitosan scaffolds were prepared using freeze gelation and combined with activated platelet-rich plasma. Human primary articular chond…