Search results for "tract"
showing 10 items of 9251 documents
Evaluation of Alternaria mycotoxins in strawberries: quantification and storage condition
2016
Alternariol (AOH), alternariol methyl ether (AME) and tentoxin (TEN) are Alternaria mycotoxins produced by the most common post-harvest pathogens of fruits. The production of these metabolites depends on several environmental factors, mainly temperature, water activity, pH and the technological treatments that have been applied to the product. In this study, the occurrence of AOH, AME and TEN was evaluated in strawberries samples stored at different temperatures ranges (at 22 ± 2 or 6 ± 2°C) and different periods (up to 1 month) simulating the current practice of consumer's storage conditions. Sample extraction was performed using a liquid-liquid extraction method prior to LC-MS/MS analysis…
Genetic and Environmental Effects on Telomere Length and Lung Function: A Twin Study.
2015
Background The purpose of the study was to estimate the heritability of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and lung function and to examine whether LTL and lung function share genetic or environmental effects in common. Methods 386 monozygotic and dizygotic Finnish twin sisters (age 68.4±3.4 years) were included. Relative LTL was determined from peripheral blood DNA by qPCR. Lung function measures of FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, and PEF were derived from spirometry. Genetic modeling was performed with MPlus statistical software. Results Univariate analysis revealed that in LTL, 62% (95% confidence interval 50-72) of the variance was explained by additive genetic and 38% (28-50) by unique environmental…
The role of the gastrointestinal tract in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases
2016
Dysregulation of the intestinal epithelial barrier in genetically susceptible individuals may lead to both intestinal and extraintestinal autoimmune disorders. There is emerging literature on the role of microbiota changes in the pathogenesis of systemic rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, and connective tissue diseases. Although the role of the gastrointestinal tract in the pathogenesis of spondyloartropathies is well defined and many studies underline the importance of gastrointestinal inflammation in modulating local and systemic inflammation, the data are inconclusive regarding the effect of dysbiosis on rheumatoid arthritis and connective tissue dise…
Fast UPLC/PDA determination of squalene in Sicilian P.D.O. pistachio from Bronte: Optimization of oil extraction method and analytical characterizati…
2017
Abstract A fast reversed-phase UPLC method was developed for squalene determination in Sicilian pistachio samples that entry in the European register of the products with P.D.O. In the present study the SPE procedure was optimized for the squalene extraction prior to the UPLC/PDA analysis. The precision of the full analytical procedure was satisfactory and the mean recoveries were 92.8 ± 0.3% and 96.6 ± 0.1% for 25 and 50 mg L−1 level of addition, respectively. Selected chromatographic conditions allowed a very fast squalene determination; in fact it was well separated in ∼0.54 min with good resolution. Squalene was detected in all the pistachio samples analyzed and the levels ranged from 5…
Combining multiple hypothesis testing with machine learning increases the statistical power of genome-wide association studies
2016
Mieth, Bettina et al.
SpaceScanner: COPASI wrapper for automated management of global stochastic optimization experiments
2017
Abstract Motivation Due to their universal applicability, global stochastic optimization methods are popular for designing improvements of biochemical networks. The drawbacks of global stochastic optimization methods are: (i) no guarantee of finding global optima, (ii) no clear optimization run termination criteria and (iii) no criteria to detect stagnation of an optimization run. The impact of these drawbacks can be partly compensated by manual work that becomes inefficient when the solution space is large due to combinatorial explosion of adjustable parameters or for other reasons. Results SpaceScanner uses parallel optimization runs for automatic termination of optimization tasks in case…
Sustained oscillations in the MAP kinase cascade.
2016
Abstract The MAP kinase cascade is a network of enzymatic reactions arranged in layers. In each layer occurs a multiple futile cycle of phosphorylations. The fully phosphorylated substrate then serves as an enzyme for the layer below. This paper focuses on the existence of parameters for which Hopf bifurcations occur and generate periodic orbits. Furthermore it is explained how geometric singular perturbation theory allows to generalize results from simple models to more complex ones.
GABAergic System in Action: Connection to Gastrointestinal Stress-related Disorders.
2017
Background: Currently, treatment of stress-related gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), is mainly symptomatic since there is no drug on the market that solves effectively diverse disease symptoms and comorbid states. Thus, recently GABA receptors have been identified within gastrointestinal system and it has been recognized that among various GABAergic drugs some of them influence gastrointestinal stress-related diseases. Firstly, benzodiazepines have been investigated due to their diverse effects: neuroimmunomodulatory, relief of visceral pain and anxiolytic action. Conclusion: The present review brings findings on the exp…
Comparison of Two Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE) Methods for the Identification and Quantification of Porcine Retinal Protein Markers by LC-MS/MS
2018
Proper sample preparation protocols represent a critical step for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based proteomic study designs and influence the speed, performance and automation of high-throughput data acquisition. The main objective of this study was to compare two commercial solid-phase extraction (SPE)-based sample preparation protocols (comprising SOLAµ
Nanoparticle decoration impacts airborne fungal pathobiology
2018
Airborne fungal pathogens, predominantly Aspergillus fumigatus, can cause severe respiratory tract diseases. Here we show that in environments, fungal spores can already be decorated with nanoparticles. Using representative controlled nanoparticle models, we demonstrate that various nanoparticles, but not microparticles, rapidly and stably associate with spores, without specific functionalization. Nanoparticle-spore complex formation was enhanced by small nanoparticle size rather than by material, charge, or "stealth" modifications and was concentration-dependently reduced by the formation of environmental or physiological biomolecule coronas. Assembly of nanoparticle-spore surface hybrid s…