Gustatory alteration evaluation in patients with chronic otitis media.

Unlabelled: Many studies have shown the consequent gustatory alteration caused by ear surgeries. However, few have reported this alteration in patients with chronic otitis media (COM), prior to surgical treatment.

Aim: to identify gustatory alterations due to chorda tympani nerve involvement in patients with COM without prior surgery.

Mineral interface in extreme habitats: a niche for primitive molecular evolution for the appearance of different forms of life on earth.

Innumerable primitive membrane and protocell models in latter stages of chemical evolution are based on the properties of minerals' interfaces with primitive seawater. The ordering mechanism induced by mineral interfaces has been the basis of several prebiotic models of molecular complexification and compartmentalization towards the appearance and evolution of different forms of life. Since mineral-aqueous media interfaces have been considered as initial stages of prebiotic models dealing with the formation of energy-transducing systems, the interface formed by pyrite in the presence of artificial primitive seawater was chosen to show the functional richness of this special niche.

Phosphate sorption and desorption on pyrite in primitive aqueous scenarios: relevance of acidic --> alkaline transitions.

Phosphate (P(i)) sorption assays onto pyrite in media simulating primeval aquatic scenarios affected by hydrothermal emissions, reveal that acidic conditions favour P(i) sorption whereas mild alkaline media--as well as those simulating sulfur oxidation to SO(2-) (4)--revert this capture process. Several mechanisms relevant to P(i) availability in prebiotic eras are implicated in the modulation of these processes. Those favouring sorption are: (a) hydrophobic coating of molecules, such as acetate that could be formed in the vicinity of hydrothermal vents; (b) water and Mg(2+) bridging in the interface mineral-aqueous media; (c) surface charge neutralization by monovalent cations (Na+ and K+).

Phosphate immobilization by oxide precursors: implications on phosphate availability before life on earth.

The present study is based on the proposal that if the aqueous phosphorus-capture mechanism by iron oxide precursors was inhibited in prebiotic anoxic scenarios then soluble phosphates could have been more available than what is observed now. Supporting this conjecture, we examine prevailing contemporary trapping mechanisms of orthophosphate (Pi) and pyrophosphate (PPi). To illustrate its efficiency, the attachment of (Pi) onto aggregates of iron-3 oxyhydroxide is compared with the one reported for the product of its condensation, PPi.