Testing Concrete Sewer Maintenance Holes Using an Angular Modulated Penetrometer.

Around the world, a significant proportion of sewers and sewer maintenance holes are constructed from concrete. Unfortunately, one major problem with concrete sewer infrastructure is corrosion caused by biogenic hydrogen sulphide, which causes major issues for concrete structural integrity. Furthermore, concrete may be significantly corroded and softened but still pass a visual inspection.

Minimal domain peptides derived from enterocins exhibit potent antifungal activity.

The antimicrobial peptide (AMP) circularized bacteriocin enterocin AS-48 produced by sp. exhibits broad-spectrum antibacterial activity via dimer insertion into the plasma membrane to form membrane pore structures, compromising membrane integrity and leading to bactericidal activity. A specific alpha-helical region of enterocin AS-48 has been shown to be responsible for the membrane-penetrating activity of the peptide.

APC 4099 has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against both bacteria and fungi and produces several antimicrobial peptides, including the novel circular bacteriocin safencin E.

Unlabelled: APC 4099, isolated from bees' gut, has been identified as a promising candidate for food biopreservation. Antimicrobial activity screening revealed a broad-spectrum inhibition potential, ranging from gram-positive pathogenic bacteria to fungi responsible for food spoilage. Genomic analysis identified biosynthetic gene clusters coding for several antimicrobial peptides and secondary metabolites.

Why most research based on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is unsubstantiated and uninterpretable: A response to Murphy and Hall (2024).

Murphy and Hall (2024) present two criticisms of our review of construct validity evidence reporting practices for the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; Higgins, Kaplan, Deschrijver, & Ross, 2024). Namely, they argue that we conflated poor reporting practices with poor validity and that our conclusions about the validity of RMET scores relied too heavily on structural validity evidence at the cost of external validity evidence. Moreover, they argue that the existing external and structural validity evidence indicates that RMET scores are generally valid for assessing emotion recognition ability.

Biological hallmarks of systemic sclerosis are present in the skin and serum of patients with Very Early Diagnosis of SSc (VEDOSS).

Objective: The Very Early Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis (VEDOSS) EUSTAR study showed that, despite not showing any clinical sign of disease, patients with Raynaud's and antinuclear antibodies and/or capillaroscopy abnormalities often progress to systemic sclerosis (SSc) within 5 years. We aimed to determine whether VEDOSS biosamples show biological SSc activity pre-clinically.

Methods: Skin biopsies were histologically analysed.