1,721,100 research outputs found
FTIR analysis of the metabolomic stress response induced by N-alkyltropinium bromide surfactants in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans
The activity of surfactants against fungal cells has been studied less than against bacteria, although the medical and industrial importance of the former is of paramount importance. In this paper the surfactant biocidal effect was measured in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans with a previously described FTIR bioassay which estimates the stress level as function of the FTIR spectra variation of the cells upon exposition to the chemicals. N-tetradecyltropinium bromide was chosen as stressing agent on the basis of previous preliminary study demonstrating its ability to kill prokaryotic and especially eukaryotic cells at concentration around or over the critical micellar concentration (c.m.c.). Here we show that this surfactant is able to inactivate S. cerevisiae cells at 0.4 mM and C. albicans cells at 0.6 mM after 1 h exposition. FTIR analysis revealed that the surfactant induced metabolomics reactions of S. cerevisiae cells in the regions of amides (W2) and fatty acids (W1). In the same way C. albicans cells showed the maximum stress response in amides (W2) and mixed (W3) regions. Variations of the hydrophobic tail of this surfactant produced a reduced level of cell stress with both the 12C and 16C variants; although these two compounds were more effective in inducing cell mortality in S. cerevisiae but not in C. albicans. In conclusion, this paper has shown that, for this surfactant, the n-alkyl chain must vary between 12C and 16C and that the hydrophilic head size is not as critical as the tail length
Applicazioni dell'analisi metabolomica mediante FTIR nell'identificazione e dereplicazione microbica
Utilizzo della metodologia Fourier Transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) per la dereplicazione e identificazione microbica
Stato dell'arte, prospettive e applicazioni di FT-IR e RAMAN nell'identificazione rapida dei microrganismi ambientali e patogeni
Biocidal and inhibitory activity screening of de novo synthesized surfactants against two eukaryotic and two prokaryotic microbial species
Thirty-six quaternary ammonium salts, of which 28 structurally different non-commercially available surfactants, were tested to screen their biocidal and inhibitory antimicrobial activity. Their activity was compared to commercially available amphiphiles as well as to non-amphiphilic quaternary ammonium salts. As target of these compounds four microbial species were employed of which two (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans) were important yeast in the food and clinical environment and the other two (Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua) represented the Gram negative and positive bacteria, respec- tively. The surfactants showed the ability to kill the microbial cells in water solution and to variably hamper their growth onto agar medium. The non-amphiphilic compounds (which represent analogues of some surfactants used in this study, since they have the same head group but no hydrophobic portion) had little effect in solution and no effect against the microbial growth on plate. Amphoteric and non- amphoteric zwitterionic surfactants showed reduced biocidal activity. The most active antimicrobial agent was N-tetradecyltropinium bromide (23S) surfactant. The presence of cells did not significantly affect the ability to form micelles, as demonstrated by comparative conductometric measurements
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Next Generation Sequencing: problems and opportunities for next generation studies of microbial communities in food and food industry
Food sciences has tried from the very beginning to describe the species present in various substrates, foods and beverages and to describe the changes of the microbiota during food evolution and maturation. These investigations require tools to massively identify bacteria and fungi in a taxonomically sound way. Next Generation Sequencing is a very promising tool in this perspective for its unmatched ability to detect sequences of taxonomic and functionally important genes. This paper reviews the variants of NGS technology and their possibility of application in various fields of food sciences, with remarks on drawbacks and possible solutions implying modifications of the molecular procedures or the application of advanced bioinformatics to interpret, store and re-use the data coming from the NGS-based studies in food microbiology
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