Among global concerns about antibiotic resistance, it is necessary to identify food-safe alternatives to enhance production. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) inclusion to replace antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in the diets of ISA Brown laying hens aged between 23 and 31 weeks. Two hundred forty hens were grouped into five treatments: Control, AGP (130 ppm of enramycin 8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease that is endemic in tropical regions, including Ecuador. It is caused by spirochetes of the genus , which can infect humans through animal reservoirs such as rats and dogs, or through contact with contaminated water or soil. In March 2023, public health authorities declared a concerning outbreak of leptospirosis in Durán Cantón, located in the Coastal region of Ecuador.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman neuraminidases play critical roles in many physiological and pathological processes. Humans have four isoenzymes of NEU, making selective inhibitors important tools to investigate the function of individual isoenzymes. A typical scaffold for NEU inhibitors is 2-deoxy-2,3-didehydro--acetylneuraminic acid (DANA) where C9 modifications can be critical for potency and selectivity against human NEU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aim: To develop species-specific probiotics for poultry, it is ideal to obtain these probiotic microorganisms directly from the intestinal tract of broiler and egg-laying chicks in production environments to ensure adaptation to actual conditions. This study aimed to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from the intestinal tract of broiler and egg-laying chicks to determine their probiotic potential.
Materials And Methods: Twenty-five Ross-308 broilers and 25 Isa Brown egg-laying chicks were raised until days 42 and 120, respectively; they were housed in an individual poultry building.
Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite and affects 6-7 million people worldwide. The diagnosis is still challenging, due to extensive parasite diversity encompassing seven genotypes (TcI-VI and Tcbat) with diverse ecoepidemiological, biological, and pathological traits. Chemotherapeutic intervention is usually effective but associated with severe adverse events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigher education institutions (HEIs) transfer skills and knowledge between industries, the government, and the public, playing a vital role at educating future leaders in creating a globally sustainable system. Therein, evaluating greenhouse gas emissions from an educational institute is the first step towards the proposed reduction targets at the local, national, and international levels. In this research, we report the first approximate carbon footprint calculation of emissions corresponding to scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions for the main urban campuses of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, using the UNE-ISO 14064-1 and WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol Corporate standard.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeonatal care has undergone important advances involving the technology for treatment and mo nitoring, the design of care spaces, the incorporation of support professionals, and, especially, the strengthening of an organizational model in networks with centers of different levels of care. Neona tal units should be located in centers with maternity services and, ideally, with pediatric ones of an equivalent level of care. This document defines the admission and transfer criteria according to the level of care and among the different levels, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur aim is to assess the efficacy of fecal calprotectin (fCP) and fecal eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (fEDN) as diagnostic markers of cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) and for monitoring the infants' response to a non-IgE mediated cow's milk protein (CMP)-free diet. We prospectively recruited infants aged 0 to 9 months. Stool samples were taken from 30 infants with CMPA, 19 with mild functional gastrointestinal disorders, 28 healthy infants, and 28 children who presented mild infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReference values of fecal calprotectin (fCP) have not been convincingly established in children. We aimed to investigate fCP concentrations in a larger population of healthy children aged 4-16 years to analyze more in depth the behavior of fCP in this age range and to determine if cut-off levels could be conclusively recommended. A prospective study was conducted to investigate fCP concentrations of healthy children aged 4-16 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) was created as an awareness tool for cow's milk allergy. The aim of the present study was to analyze the inter-rater variability between a pediatrician, parents, and day to day variability. A Health Care Professional (HCP) and parent filled in the CoMiSS independently and blinded for each other to evaluate inter-rater variability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMothers attending infant children usually experience high levels of fatigue, and fatigue has been shown to be related to car crashes through attentional errors, among other causes. The current study investigates the effects of fatigue on the attentional errors while driving of women attending infant children. A sample of 112 women-67 attending infant children and 45 not attending-filled out self-report questionnaires assessing acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and attention-related driving errors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSSTM) was developed as an awareness tool to recognize possible manifestations of cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA). Arbitrarily, a cut-off value of ≥12 was defined as a "positive score." The aim of this study was to determine an age-related CoMiSS in healthy infants to minimize the risk of false reassurance or over-diagnosis of CMPA in case of a negative or positive score, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSilicon nanowires (SiNWs) are considered as potential chemical sensors due to their large surface-to-volume ratio and their possible integration into arrays for nanotechnological applications. Detection of harmful gases like CO has been experimentally demonstrated, however, the influence of doping on the sensing capacity of SiNWs has not yet been reported. For this work, we theoretically studied the surface adsorption of a CO molecule on hydrogen-passivated SiNWs grown along the [111] crystallographic direction and compared it with the adsorption of other molecules such as NO, and O.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemiconductor nanowire arrays promise rapid development of a new generation of lithium (Li) batteries because they can store more Li atoms than conventional crystals due to their large surface areas. During the charge-discharge process, the electrodes experience internal stresses that fatigue the material and limit the useful life of the battery. The theoretical study of electronic and mechanical properties of lithiated nanowire arrays allows the designing of electrode materials that could improve battery performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe half-metallic behavior of the perovskite SrFeMoO (SFMO) suggests that this material could be used in spintronic applications. Indeed, SFMO could be an attractive material for multiple applications due to the possibility that its electronic properties could be changed by modifying its spatial confinement or the relative contents of its constituent transition metals. However, there are no reports of theoretical studies on the properties of confined SFMOs with different transition metal contents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, we address the effects of molecular doping on the electronic properties of fluorinated and chlorinated silicon nanowires (SiNWs), in comparison with those corresponding to hydrogen-passivated SiNWs. Adsorption of n-type dopant molecules on hydrogenated and halogenated SiNWs and their chemisorption energies, formation energies, and electronic band gap are studied by using density functional theory calculations. The results show that there are considerable charge transfers and strong covalent interactions between the dopant molecules and the SiNWs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent Pat Food Nutr Agric
May 2018
Background: Flaxseed is becoming an increasingly widely used food ingredient. The rising interest of the food industry in this nutraceutical is primarily because of functional nutrients, such as alpha-linolenic acid and lignans, which have health benefits due to their lipid-lowering properties.
Objective: The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the patenting of flaxseed products with cholesterol-lowering effects.
The electronic band structure and electronic density of states of cubic SiC nanowires (SiCNWs) in the directions [001], [111], and [112] were studied by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT) based on the generalized gradient approximation and the supercell technique. The surface dangling bonds were passivated using hydrogen (H) atoms and OH radicals in order to study the effects of this passivation on the electronic states of the SiCNWs. The calculations show a clear dependence of the electronic properties of the SiCNWs on the quantum confinement, orientation, and chemical passivation of the surface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Syst Evol Microbiol
November 2012
Three strains representing a novel yeast species were recovered as part of independent collections from flower-associated nitidulid beetles in Australia, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Analysis of the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rRNA gene indicated that the species belongs to the genus Saccharomycopsis, although the formation of ascospores was not observed. The yeast is capable of necrotrophic parasitism by means of infection pegs when mixed with other yeasts or filamentous fungi.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPomolic acid (PA), triterpenoid isolated from Licania pittieri, has previously shown a potent ability to inhibit adenosine diphosphate (ADP)- and epinephrine-induced human platelet aggregation. To investigate whether PA could be an antagonist of ADP-activated receptors of human platelets (P2Y(1) and P2Y(12)), pharmacological studies were conducted to examining its ability to modulate the platelet shape change induced by a selective P2Y(1) receptor agonist MRS2365 and also the nature of its possible interaction with ADP receptors by analyzing the characteristics of log concentration-response curves of ADP constructed in the absence and in the presence of fixed concentrations of PA, using in vitro platelet aggregation assays. PA did not interfere with the activation of P2Y(1) receptor by MRS2365 to induce platelet shape change and displayed a competitive antagonism of ADP-induced platelet aggregation, which most probably involves competition for a single binding site in platelets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultidrug resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is frequently associated with gain-of-function mutations in zinc finger-containing transcription factors Pdr1p and Pdr3p. These regulatory proteins activate the expression of several ATP-binding cassette transporter genes, leading to elevated drug resistance. Here, we report that loss of the type 2A-related serine/threonine protein phosphatase Sit4p renders yeast cells sensitive to cycloheximide, azoles, daunorubicin and rhodamine 6G.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to assess the impact of obesity and low birth weight on both office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) values, as well as on aortic-derived parameters in youths. A total of 422 white youths, from 10 to 18 years of age, were included. Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to the presence (234; 55%) or the absence (188; 45%) of obesity and according to low (114; 27%) or normal (308; 73%, birth weight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF