#Biochar from manure waste enhances soils Researchers at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have obtained biochar using manure waste,
a new material that can improve soil properties and increase crop yields. The results of the research group of Valuation of resources from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid suggest an optimal solution to manage the manure from chicken and cattle.
Biochar, a material obtained after thermal treatment of this waste through pyrolysis, is an organic fertilizer that applied in soils
and not only has positive effects on crop yields, but also represents a significant reduction of CO2 EMISSIONS compared to the direct application of manure waste on soils.
Waste production either from urban, industrial or agricultural source, is a major environmental problem in our society.
In fact, recycling, reusing and using raw materials from the waste we generate are some of the environmental challenge that we face today.
The European union is indeed investing efforts within its strategy to promote the efficient use of resources.
This waste contains fertilizers, and its production has increased over the last years because of intensive farming and has been used traditionally in soils as an organic amendment.
However, its high-volume production and the generation of environmental problems (eutrophication and pollution of groundwater due to its high concentration of nutrients
production of methane emissions and odors) make necessary to search for other waste management routes. It is highlighted the thermal treatment through pyrolysis for large scale production of biochar
or biocarbon that can be defined as a carbonaceous material obtained through thermal treatment of biomass at low temperatures and under inert atmosphere.
The research carried out by the Departments of Geological and Mining engineering and Agricultural production of UPM shows that the biochar produced from manure of cattle,
pigs and chicken is an organic fertilizer with a high content of nutrients, stabilized organic material and high values of cation exchange capacity.
These results give evidence of the positive effects of using biochar as a fertilizer on soils for better crop yields.
Besides the results show that the pyrolysis of manure waste has other additional environmental benefits such as reduced soil nutrient leaching and less waste volume, removal of odor and pathogens of the original material.
Pyrolysis of manure waste can drastically reduce CO2 EMISSIONS compared to the direct application of manure waste to soils.
These findings are the results of a close collaboration among the research group of Valuation of resources from UPM, Guía Ávila Ingenieros Co. and the Abulense Confederation of Employers,
that are interested in searching for new activities that relaunch the economy of marginal agricultural areas like the Valle Amblés (Ávila).
These results are of great interest and have immediate practical application in associations of farmers and agrifood companies m
#Sensor detects spoilage of food VTT has developed a sensor that detects ethanol in the headspace of a food package.
Ethanol is formed as a result of food spoilage. The sensor signal is wirelessly readable, for instance, by a mobile phone.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is searching for a partner so as to commercialize the sensor.
The sensor monitors ethanol emitted from the spoilage of foods into the headspace of a package.
Ethanol, in addition to carbon dioxide, was found to be the main volatile spoilage metabolite in fresh-cut fruit.
The information given by the sensor is transmitted from the package to the customer by means of a reader
and the data is saved digitally in a remote server. This ethanol sensor can have potential in other applications,
such as in alcometers. The sensor layer is part of a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, and the sensor data can be read wirelessly using an RFID reader in for example, a smartphone.
The sensor transmits information about the freshness of the food in the package to the retailer or customer.
The freshness data can be stored in real time in the cloud, enabling the comparison of food quality with its previous or later condition.
A similar optical readout based on the colour change of the ethanol sensor was developed also for a smartphone.
The sensor and the RFID tag can be manufactured using printing techniques into a label or sticker and be attached easily to a food package.
The price of the sensor will then be low enough for use in food packages.
Using the sensor, it will be possible to control the food quality throughout the distribution chain and to prevent waste caused by spoilage.
More than 100 tonnes of food products end up in waste annually (estimation 2014) in Europe, and the amount will rise to 126 million tonnes in the year 2020 if nothing changes s
#Bacteria research opens way for new antibiotics University of Adelaide researchers have discovered a target for the development of completely new antibiotics against disease-causing bacteria.
Published online ahead of print in the leading microbiology journal Molecular Microbiology, the researchers have identified a building block common to many types of bacterial'virulence factors'(the bacterial proteins
which act as weapons to cause disease, such as toxins or degrading enzymes). The building block, called the Passenger-associated Transport Repeat (PATR),
has been found in virulence factors of many major harmful bacteria including Salmonella, Shigella, and Meningococcus as well as bacteria that cause infections in cystic fibrosis and burns patients.
It has been found in many of the major so-called'Gram negative bacteria, 'including those that have developed resistance to a broad range of antibiotics.
The PATR was shown to be integral in the transport of the virulence factors to the surface of the bacterial cell,
where they need to be to function as disease-causing agents.""Bacteria can only cause disease
when virulence factors are produced appropriately by the bacteria and transported (or secreted) onto the cell surface where they become harmful,
"says first author Matthew Doyle, Phd candidate in the School of Biological sciences.""Our results are very exciting#we are not just talking about one molecule in one particular pathogen but rather a building block
which is shared by thousands of common virulence factors produced by many major pathogenic bacteria. The PATR is crucial for those virulence factors to mature appropriately."
"It opens up the possibility for development of a completely new class of broad-spectrum bacterial virulence inhibitors.
If we can inhibit this building block, we are really onto something.""The discovery will also be useful in the biotechnology field for the development of a variety of marketable products
and processes which rely on coupling biological molecules to cell surfaces. The latest findings follow more than a decade of work led by Associate professor Renato Morona looking at how bacteria cause disease.
The research is expected to gain a lot of attention from the many groups around the world working in the field."
"We initially could not believe that this building block has been overlooked, "says Associate professor Morona.""We've discovered something that's been hidden in plain sight.
It may shift the way research in this field is conducted. e
#New method detects more breast cancer in screening Tomosynthesis detects 40%more breast cancers than traditional mammography does, according to a major screening study from Lund University, Sweden.
This is the first large-scale study to compare the screening method with regular mammograms. The 3d X-ray technique is also more comfortable for women,
as breast compression is halved. A total of 7 500 women aged 40-74 took part in the first half of the study,
which formed the basis for the findings.""We see a change as inevitable. Breast tomosynthesis will be introduced,
it is just a question of when and on what scale,"explains Sophia Zackrisson and Kristina Lång, radiologists at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö and researchers at Lund University.
Breast tomosynthesis is a three-dimensional X-ray technique that makes it easier to detect tumours in breast tissue.
The technique works on the same principle as tomography. This means that X-ray images of the breast are acquired from different angles,
which can then show multiple thin layers of the breast. This is compared with a traditional mammography
where all the breast tissue is reproduced in a single image, which can hinder the early detection of tumours.
The new technique also reduces discomfort and pain, because the breast does not have to be compressed as firmly as in the current examination technique.
meaning more healthy women with benign lesions were recalled for further testing. This is a drawback in screening,
as it can cause unnecessary psychological stress. The ongoing research will also look at costs. Breast tomosynthesis is a somewhat more expensive technique."
#Mobile phone video microscope automates detection of parasites in blood"We previously showed that mobile phones can be used for microscopy,
but this is the first device that combines the imaging technology with hardware and software automation to create a complete diagnostic solution,
"said Daniel Fletcher, associate chair and professor of bioengineering, whose UC Berkeley lab pioneered the Cellscope."
"The video Cellscope provides accurate, fast results that enable health workers to make potentially lifesaving treatment decisions in the field."
"The UC Berkeley engineers teamed up with Dr. Thomas Nutman from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases,
and collaborators from Cameroon and France to develop the device. They conducted a pilot study in Cameroon,
or parasitic worm, diseases onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis. The video Cellscope, which uses motion instead of molecular markers
May 6, in the journal Science Translational Medicine.""This research is addressing neglected tropical diseases, "said Fletcher."
"It demonstrates what technology can do to help fill a void for populations that are suffering from terrible, but treatable diseases."
"Battling parasitic wormsriver blindness is transmitted through the bite of blackflies and is the second leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide.
Lymphatic filariasis, spread by mosquitoes, leads to elephantiasis, a condition marked by painful, disfiguring swelling in parts of the body.
It is the second leading cause of disability worldwide and, like river blindness, is highly endemic in certain regions in Africa.
The antiparasitic drug ivermectin, or IVM, can be used to treat these diseases, but mass public health campaigns to administer the medication have been stalled because of potentially fatal side effects for patients co-infected with Loa loa,
which causes loiasis, or African eye worm. When there are high circulating levels of microscopic Loa loa worms in a patient,
treatment with IVM can lead to brain or other neurologic damage that can be severe or fatal.
The standard method of screening for levels of Loa loa involves trained technicians manually counting the worms in a blood smear using conventional laboratory microscopes,
making the process impractical for use in field settings and in mass campaigns to administer IVM.
representing a major setback in the efforts to eradicate river blindness and elephantiasis. Next generation Cellscope uses video, automationfor this latest generation of the mobile phone microscope, named Cellscope Loa, the researchers paired a smartphone with a 3d printed plastic base where the sample of blood
is positioned. The base includes LED LIGHTS, microcontrollers, gears, circuitry and a USB port. Control of the device is automated through an app the researchers developed for this purpose.
With a single touch of the screen by the healthcare worker, the phone communicates wirelessly via Bluetooth to controllers in the base to process
and analyze the sample of blood. Gears move the sample in front of the camera and an algorithm automatically analyzes the telltale"wriggling"motion of the worms in video captured by the phone.
The worm count is displayed then on the screen. Fletcher said previous field tests revealed that automation helped reduce the rate of human error.
The procedure takes about two minutes or less, starting from the time the sample is inserted to the display of the results.
Pricking a finger and loading the blood onto the capillary adds an additional minute to the time.
The short processing time allows health workers to quickly determine on site whether it is safe to administer IVM."
"The availability of a point-of-care test prior to drug treatment is a major advance in the control of these debilitating diseases,
"said aquatic ecologist Vincent Resh, a professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental science, Policy and Management."
"The research offering a phone based app is ingenious, practical and highly needed.""Resh, who is involved not in the Cellscope project,
#Photoactive dye could prevent infection during bone-repair surgery Despite extensive procedures to sterilize small and large bone fragments used in joint replacement or reconstructive surgeries,
the rate of infection remains around 5 percent and can reach 11 percent or even higher in bone repairs for gunshot wounds or reconstruction after tumor removal.
Infection after surgery is a serious complication that can require further surgery and can be life threatening.
A new study demonstrates for the first time that an antimicrobial dye activated by light avidly adheres to bone to prevent bacteria from growing on bone fragments used in reconstructive surgery
and remove any bacteria that has attached already, thereby sterilizing the bone for surgery. The study was published online April 17 ahead of print in the journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research."
"We used a class of chemicals called porphyrins that are tolerated very well by the body in the dark
and appear to have excellent antimicrobial properties in the presence of light, "says Noreen Hickok, Ph d.,Associate professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University."
"These properties allow sterilization during surgical procedures, which occur in bright light.""Surgeons often use bone chips
or bone powder as a sort of putty during bone reconstruction to help areas of bone re-grow.
when a tumor or accident requires replacement of a large segment of bone. These bone materials can come either from the patient
The researchers took these bone chips and treated them with a green dye called TAPP (which stands for 5, 10,15, 20-tetrakis-(4-aminophenyl)- porphyrin).
or biofilms, already growing on the bone fragments. They demonstrated this by first allowing bacteria to colonize the bone
the TAPP dye could be added to the currently used protocols for sterilizing the bone prior to use in surgery."
and the other would be the continuation of the activation in the bright lights of the surgical suite
so that the sterilizing effects of the ROS release could continue well into surgery and implantation,"says Dr. Hickok."
"We need to continue testing in conditions that more closely resemble the surgical suite, but we think that this method could offer a more effective method to help improve patient outcomes by reducing infection rates
#Smarter, cheaper technologies offer improved point-of-care medicine A team from Stanford university School of medicine (Bio-Acoustic MEMS in Medicine Labs) developed assays for the simple and rapid detection
of HIV-1, various bacteria, and CD4+T lymphocytes. The assays for pathogens and cells were used as proof of concept to demonstrate the utility of several new detection and sensing technologies.
Overall, the group has developed platforms and sensing devices that are easy to make, easy to use and can be disposed safely of after use--characteristics necessary for developing affordable tools with broad applications in both developed and developing countries.
The work is reported in the March 6 edition of Nature Scientific Reports.""The group is simultaneously developing multiple novel methods that target important diseases in underserved communities,
"says Tiffani Lash, Phd.,Director of the NIBIB Program in Point-of-care Technologies.""Their comprehensive approach is resulting in smarter,
inexpensive technologies that can be applied to a wide range of health care problems and settings.""Testing for HIV-1 in whole bloodcurrent tests for HIV infection detect antibodies to HIV in the individual's blood.
However, because it takes up to several months for those antibodies to form, these tests do not detect individuals in the earliest stage of infection
when they are most likely to pass on the disease. In order to detect HIV-1 in recently infected individuals the researchers developed an assay that can detect the presence of the virus in whole blood or plasma.
The platform is a disposable flexible polyester chip with implanted electrodes. HIV-1 antibodies are added to whole blood
or plasma where they bind to the virus creating aggregates of antibody and viral lysate.
When added to the flexible chip the aggregates change the electrical conductivity of the chip, which gives a simple electrical readout indicating that the sample contains HIV-1.
In addition to detecting early stage infection, the electrical readout is much simpler and less expensive than current assays.
The researchers estimate that the cost is about $2 per test and can be disposed safely of after use.
CD4+T lymphocyte capture and detectionaccurate CD4+T cell count is essential for HIV-1 diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
World health organization guidelines recommend antiretroviral therapy for individuals with a CD4+T cell count of less than 500 cells/ml.
Conventional CD4+T cell counting methods require an expensive flow cytometer a skilled operator, and costly reagents.
A disposable and flexible biosensing platform for efficient counting of CD4+T cells has potential to address some of these global health challenges in the point-of-care setting.
The approach used by the research team to develop a simple, inexpensive assay for CD4+T cell count involved two novel technologies:
a polyester film with microfluidic channels to capture the T cells, and a detection technology known as lensless shadow imaging.
The microfluidic channels were coated with an antibody that captures the CD4+T cells. A single drop of whole blood from a fingerprick was applied to the polyester film,
where capillary forces pull the blood into the microfluidic channels. The shadow of the CD4+T cells that adhere to the channels can then be visualized on the polyester film.
Overall, the platform allows efficient CD4+T cell counting using fingerprick volume of unprocessed whole blood samples on disposable film at the point-of-care.
This platform has the potential to replace the current use of nondisposable glass platforms that require additional steps
and expense to visualize the cells with a fluorescent tag. Using a cell phone to detect
and quantify bacteriae. coli and S. aureus are the most common bacterial pathogens that cause food poisoning,
skin infections and blood infections. The group developed a sensitive biosensing platform that detects E coli by the aggregation of nanoparticles on cellulose Paper gold nanoparticles are covered with surface molecules that bind to E coli bacteria.
When the test fluid containing bacteria is mixed with the nanoparticles and transferred to the cellulose paper, the aggregation results in a blue spot.
If bacteria are not present there is no aggregation and the solution applied to the cellulose paper turns red.
Thus the presence or absence of bacteria can be seen immediately. Further, the group was able to determine the concentration of E coli in the sample by taking a picture of the blue spot on the paper with a cell phone
and using an imaging analysis tool to measure red pixel intensity of the picture. Concentrations of E coli could be quantified ranging from 8 to 1. 5 million bacteria per milliliter.
Further, the platform provides a multiplexed capability and can be applied to other bacteria such as S. aureus."
"The goal of our work,"says Utkan Demirici, Phd. of the Demirici Bio-Acoustic-MEMS in Medicine Laboratory at Stanford School of medicine,"is to simplify the techniques that both capture the biotarget
and detect that captured target. Both aspects of a simplified test must be addressed to move this type of work forward to practical use in low resource settings.
These platform technologies can be applied potentially broadly to other diseases such detecting oncogenic viruses such as KSHV, HPV, HBV and HCV,
which we also need to be monitored in the developed world settings at a primary care physicians office or during a dental appointment or at the bedside
#3d'organoids'grown from patient tumors could personalize drug screening Three-dimensional cultures (or'organoids')derived from the tumors of cancer patients closely replicate key properties of the original tumors,
reveals a study. These'organoid'cultures are amenable to large-scale drug screens for the detection of genetic changes associated with drug sensitivity
and pave the way for personalized treatment approaches that could optimize clinical outcomes in cancer patients."
"This is the first time that a collection of cancer organoids, or a living biobank, has been derived from patient tumors,
"says senior study author Mathew Garnett, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.""We believe that these organoids are an important new tool in the arsenal of cancer biologists
and may ultimately improve our ability to develop more effective cancer treatments.""To study the causes of cancer
and develop new cancer treatments, many laboratories use experimental model systems such as cells grown from patient tumors.
However, currently available cell lines have been derived under suboptimal conditions and therefore fail to reflect important features of tumor cells.
As a result, it has been challenging to predict the drug sensitivity of individual patients based on their unique spectrum of genetic mutations.
In recent years, scientists have developed organoid cell culture systems as an alternative approach to grow normal and diseased tissue in a dish.
In contrast to cell lines organoids display the hallmarks of the original tissue in terms of its 3d architecture,
the cell types present, and their self-renewal properties. Given the advantages of organoids, Garnett and Hans Clevers of the Hubrecht Institute set out to test
whether these cultures could potentially bridge the gap between cancer genetics and patient outcomes. In the new study, the researchers grew 22 organoids derived from tumor tissue from 20 patients with colorectal cancer
and then sequenced genomic DNA isolated from these cultures. The genetic mutations in the organoid cultures closely matched those in the corresponding tumor biopsies and agreed well with previous large-scale analyses of colorectal cancer mutations.
These findings confirm that the cultures faithfully capture the genomic features of the tumors from
which they are derived as well as much of the genomic diversity associated with colorectal cancer. To link drug sensitivity to genetic changes,
the researchers next screened the responses of the organoids to 83 experimental and approved cancer drugs.
Given their diverse genetic profiles, the organoids displayed a range of sensitivities to the drugs.
In validation of the approach, the researchers identified previously reported associations between specific mutations and resistance to particular drugs.
The organoids also revealed a novel gene-drug association, indicating that the subset of cancer patients with RNF43 mutations would strongly benefit from a drug that inhibits a protein called porcupine."
"At some point in the future, this approach may be suitable for modeling individual patient response to cancer therapies to inform clinical treatment,
"Garnett says. Moving forward, the researchers plan to expand the panel of existing colon organoids as well as develop an organoid biobank for other tumor types."
"Cancer is a diverse and complex disease and having a large collection of organoids is necessary to encompass this diversity to enable scientists
and clinicians to develop new treatments, "Garnett says s
#Viagra to prevent transmission of the malaria parasite? By increasing the stiffness of erythrocytes infected by the causal agent of malaria,
Viagra favors their elimination from the blood circulation and may therefore reduce transmission of the parasite from humans to mosquitoes.
This astonishing discovery, made by scientists from the CNRS, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes--at the Institut Cochin--and the Institut pasteur, working in collaboration with a team from the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, could lead to a treatment to reduce the spread of malaria within a population.
Their work is published in PLOS Pathogens on 7 may 2015. Plasmodium falciparum the parasite that causes malaria, has a complex developmental cycle that is partially completed in humans and partially in the anopheline mosquito.
Treatments for malaria target the asexual forms of this parasite that cause symptoms, but not the sexual forms transmitted from a human to a mosquito when it bites.
Eradication of this disease thus necessitates the development of new types of treatments against sexual forms of the parasite
in order to block transmission and thus prevent dissemination of the disease within the population. The sexual forms of the parasite develop in human erythrocytes sequestered in the bone marrow before they are released into the blood.
They are then accessible to mosquitoes which can ingest them when they bite (see the top of the image on page 2)
. But circulating erythrocytes--whether they are infected gametocyte or not--are deformable, thus preventing their clearance via the spleen,
which constantly filters the blood and only retains stiff, old or abnormal erythrocytes. However, gametocyte-infected erythrocytes can easily pass through the spleen
and persist for several days in the blood circulation. During a new study, the scientists thus sought to stiffen the infected erythrocytes.
the erythrocyte becomes stiffer. camp is degraded by the enzyme phosphodiesterase, whose action thus promotes erythrocyte deformability.
This discovery could help find new ways to stop the spread of malaria in a population.
#Urine test for early stage pancreatic cancer possible after biomarker discovery A team at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has shown that the three-protein'signature'can both identify the most common
--and distinguish between this cancer and the inflammatory condition chronic pancreatitis, which can be hard to tell apart.
based on biological information and performance in statistical analysis. Patients with pancreatic cancer were found to have increased levels of each of the three proteins
while patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis had significantly lower levels than cancer patients. When combined, the three proteins formed a robust panel that can detect patients with stages I-II pancreatic cancer with over 90 per cent accuracy.
With few specific symptoms even at a later stage of the disease, more than 80 per cent of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed
when the cancer has already spread. This means they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumour--currently the only potentially curative treatment.
The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer in the UK is the lowest of any common cancer, standing at 3 per cent.
This figure has improved barely in 40 years. There is no early diagnostic test available. Lead researcher, Dr Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, said:"
"We've always been keen to develop a diagnostic test in urine as it has several advantages over using blood.
while to secure proof of principle funding in 2008 to look at biomarkers in urine, but it's been worth the wait for these results.
This is a biomarker panel with good specificity and sensitivity and we're hopeful that a simple,
people at higher risk of developing the disease include those with a family history of pancreatic cancer, heavy smokers, the obese and people over 50 years with new-onset diabetes.
if the 3-biomarker signature is present during the latency period--the time between the genetic changes that will cause the cancer to develop and the clinical presentation."
"For a cancer with no early stage symptoms, it's a huge challenge to diagnose pancreatic cancer sooner,
"says co-author and Director of Barts Cancer Institute, Professor Nick Lemoine.""With pancreatic cancer, patients are diagnosed usually
when the cancer is already at a terminal stage, but if diagnosed at stage 2,
Early diagnosis is an important part of our overall efforts against this aggressive cancer, alongside developing new treatments to tackle the disease once diagnosis is made.
It underlines the importance of increased research efforts to help improve survival rates.""Many of the urine samples from healthy individuals tested by Tanja's team were donated from the charity's own supporter community,
and I know they will be extremely proud that they have contributed directly to research progress in ways that go beyond traditional financial support
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