1,720,996 research outputs found
Activities of different types of Thai honey on pathogenic bacteria causing skin diseases, tyrosinase enzyme and generating free radicals
BACKGROUND: Honey is a natural product obtained from the nectar that is collected from flowers by bees. It has several properties, including those of being food and supplementary diet, and it can be used in cosmetic products. Honey imparts pharmaceutical properties since it has antibacterial and antioxidant activities. The antibacterial and antioxidant activities of Thai honey were investigated in this study. RESULTS: The honey from longan flower (source No. 1) gave the highest activity on MRSA when compared to the other types of honey, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 12.5% (v/v) and minimum bactericidal concentration of 25% (v/v). Moreover, it was found that MRSA isolate 49 and S. aureus were completely inhibited by the 50% (v/v) longan honey (source No. 1) at 8 and 20 hours of treatment, respectively. Furthermore, it was observed that the honey from coffee pollen (source No. 4) showed the highest phenolic and flavonoid compounds by 734.76 mg gallic/kg of honey and 178.31 mg quercetin/kg of honey, respectively. The antioxidant activity of the honey obtained from coffee pollen was also found to be the highest, when investigated using FRAP and DPPH assay, with 1781.77 mg FeSO4•7H2O/kg of honey and 86.20 mg gallic/kg of honey, respectively. Additionally, inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme was found that honey from coffee flower showed highest inhibition by 63.46%. CONCLUSIONS: Honey demonstrates tremendous potential as a useful source that provides anti-free radicals, anti-tyrosinase and anti-bacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria causing skin diseases
Efficacy of Kombucha Obtained from Green, Oolong, and Black Teas on Inhibition of Pathogenic Bacteria, Antioxidation, and Toxicity on Colorectal Cancer Cell Line
Kombucha tea is a refreshing beverage that is produced from the fermentation of tea leaves. In this study, kombucha tea was prepared using 1% green tea, oolong tea, and black tea, and 10% sucrose with acetic acid bacteria and yeast. The pH values of the kombucha tea were found to be in a range of 2.70–2.94 at 15 days of fermentation. The lowest pH value of 2.70 was recorded in the kombucha prepared from black tea. The total acidity of kombucha prepared from black tea was the highest by 16.75 g/L and it was still maintained after heat treatment by boiling and after autoclaved. Six organic acids: glucuronic, gluconic, D-saccharic acid 1,4-lactone, ascorbic, acetic, and succinic acid in kombucha tea were detected by HPLC with the optimization for organic acids detection using isocratic elution buffer with C18 conventional column. The highest level of organic acid was gluconic acid. Kombucha prepared from green tea revealed the highest phenolic content and antioxidation against DPPH radicals by 1.248 and 2.642 mg gallic acid/mL kombucha, respectively. Moreover, pathogenic enteric bacteria: Escherichia coli. E. coli O157:H7. Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella Typhi, and Vibrio cholera were inhibited by kombucha and heat-denatured kombucha with diameter of the inhibition zones ranged from 15.0 ± 0.0–25.0 ± 0.0 mm. In addition, kombucha prepared from green tea and black tea demonstrated toxicity on Caco-2 colorectal cancer cells. Therefore, kombucha tea could be considered as a potential source of the antioxidation, inhibition of pathogenic enteric bacteria, and toxicity on colorectal cancer cells
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
Antimicrobial and Cytoprotective Effects of Tea Extracts Against Escherichia coli-Producing Colibactin Toxin Infections
Background/Objectives: Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze or tea contains bioactive compounds such as catechin and caffeine, known for their antimicrobial and health-promoting properties. Colibactin-producing Escherichia coli are linked to genotoxicity in colon epithelial cells, potentially contributing to colorectal disease. This study aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effects of tea extracts (green, oolong, and black) and the phytochemicals catechin and caffeine on E. coli pathogenesis mediated by colibactin toxins, including transient infections, DNA damage, and cell cycle alterations in Caco-2 colon cells. Methods: Tea extracts were analyzed by HPLC for phytochemical content. Their antimicrobial activity against colibactin-producing E. coli (ATCC 25922) was assessed. Caco-2 cells were infected with the bacteria and treated with tea extracts or compounds. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay, DNA damage was measured by alkaline comet assay, and the expression of CDK-1, CDK-2, and Ki-67 genes was measurd by qRT-PCR. Results: Tea extracts and catechin inhibited colibactin-producing E. coli and significantly protected Caco-2 cells. Oolong tea showed the highest protection (90.78 ± 2.76%), with others maintaining viability above 80%. DNA damage was markedly reduced, and cell cycle regulation improved. All extracts upregulated CDK-1 and downregulated CDK-2, aiding in cell cycle restoration. Ki-67 expression indicated enhanced cell proliferation during infection. Conclusions: This study highlights new findings showing that tea extracts, including green, oolong, and black tea, as well as the tea compounds catechin and caffeine, can protect against DNA damage and help maintain the normal cell cycle of colon cells infected with E. coli-producing colibactin toxin. These results support their potential role in preventing and mitigating infections caused by such E. coli strains while promoting colon cell health
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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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