Microorganism growth profiles during fermentation of Gayo Arabica wine coffee

Coffee is a non-alcoholic beverage that is consumed globally due to its specific flavour and functional properties. Nowadays coffee is diversified based on its coffee varieties, brewing methods, and bean processing techniques. Wine coffee is a commercial name for fermented coffee, a new coffee diversification product. Wine coffee is produced by fermenting coffee cherries for 30 to 60 days. As a new product, the process is not well studied. This research aims to explore the microorganisms’ activity and its profile growth during 30 days of fermentation. The documentation of pH and temperature, and microbial sampling during coffee cherry fermentation were conducted seven times, started at 0 days; 2 days; 4 days; 6 days; 8 days; 10 days; 12 days; 14 days; 16 days; 20 and 30 days. The results showed that pH decreases and temperature increases during fermentation. pH started from 5.0 and down to 3.9 when fermentation is terminated after 30 days, whilst the temperature slightly changes from 25°C to 30°C. The microorganism’s population shows the presence of yeast, lactic acid (LAB) and acetic acid bacteria (AAB) in wine coffee production. The yeast population increases in the mid fermentation as the cherries are damaged and provide suitable nutrition for the yeast. LAB also co-exists at a similar stage. Further research should be done, especially to understand the interaction mechanism between yeast and yeast, yeast and LAB, and yeast and AAB.

Sonographic Measurement of Brainstem Through the Foramen Magnum in Premature Neonates Can Predict Neurodevelopment Outcome?

Background: To investigate whether serial morphometric measurements of the brainstem using high resolution trans-foramen-magnum ultrasound (US) in premature neonates correlate with neurological outcomes.Methods: Serial brain ultrasound scans were performed in 36 consecutive preterm infants born at <34 weeks of gestation from birth until term-equivalent age. Two-dimensional brainstem measurements of the pons and medulla oblongata were compared with those in a cohort of 67 healthy full-term newborns. Neurologic assessment of the premature infants was assessed at 5 years of age.Results: Of the 36 preterm infants born between 25 and 34 weeks of gestation, eight had significantly delayed growth profiles in both the pons and medulla and developed neurological sequelae by 5 years of age.Conclusions: Morphometric measurements of the developing brainstem using high resolution trans-foramen-magnum ultrasound (US) may help predict neurological outcome in high-risk neonates, particularly in those who are born extremely premature.

Pathways toward Inclusive Income Growth: A Comparative Decomposition of National Growth Profiles

Despite rising interest in income inequality, scholars remain divided over the mechanisms underlying inclusive income growth and how these mechanisms vary across countries. This study introduces the concept of national growth profiles, that is, the additive contribution of changes in taxes, transfers, composition, and other factors including market institutions to changes across a country’s income distribution. We present a decomposition framework to measure national growth profiles for eight high-income countries from the 1980s to 2010s. Our findings adjudicate competing sociological and economic perspectives on rising inequality. First, we find that policy-driven changes in taxes and transfers are the dominant drivers of inclusive growth at the tails of the income distributions. Second, rising educational attainment contributes most to income growth across the distribution, but consistently contributes to less-inclusive growth. When changes in education are considered, changes in assortative mating and single parenthood have little consequence for changes in inequality. Third, changes to other factors including market institutions increased inequality in countries such as the United States, but less so in France and Germany. Had the United States matched the changes to Dutch tax policy, Danish transfer policy, or other factors of most other countries, it could have achieved more inclusive income growth than observed.

The Persistence of Staphylococcus aureus in Pressure Ulcers: A Colonising Role

Decubitus pressure ulcers (PU) are a major complication of immobilised patients. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequently detected microorganisms in PU samples; however, its persistence and role in the evolution of these wounds is unknown. In this study, we analysed S. aureus strains isolated from PU biopsies at inclusion and day 28. Eleven S. aureus (21.1%) were detected in 52 patients at inclusion. Only six PUs (11.5%) continued to harbour this bacterium at day 28. Using a whole genome sequencing approach (Miseq®, Illumina), we confirmed that these six S. aureus samples isolated at D28 were the same strain as that isolated at inclusion, with less than 83 bp difference. Phenotypical studies evaluating the growth profiles (Infinite M Mano, Tecan®) and biofilm formation (Biofilm Ring Test®) did not detect any significant difference in the fitness of the pairs of S. aureus. However, using the Caenorhabditis elegans killing assay, a clear decrease of virulence was observed between strains isolated at D28 compared with those isolated at inclusion, regardless of the clinical evolution of the PU. Moreover, all strains at inclusion were less virulent than a control S. aureus strain, i.e., NSA739. An analysis of polymicrobial communities of PU (by metabarcoding approach), in which S. aureus persisted, demonstrated no impact of Staphylococcus genus on PU evolution. Our study suggested that S. aureus presented a colonising profile on PU with no influence on wound evolution.

Pathways toward Inclusive Income Growth: A Comparative Decomposition of National Growth Profiles

Despite rising interest in income inequality, scholars remain divided over the mechanisms underlying inclusive income growth and how these mechanisms vary across countries. This study introduces the concept of national growth profiles, the additive contribution of changes in taxes, transfers, composition, and other factors including market institutions to changes across a country’s income distribution. We present a decomposition framework to measure national growth profiles for eight high-income countries from the 1980–2010s. Our findings adjudicate competing sociological and economic perspectives on rising inequality. First, we find that policy-driven changes in taxes and transfers are the dominant drivers of inclusive growth at the tails of the income distributions. Second, rising educational attainment contributes most to income growth across the distribution, but consistently contributes to less-inclusive growth. When changes in education are considered, changes in assortative mating and single parenthood have little consequence for changes in inequality. Third, changes to other factors including market institutions increased inequality in countries such as the U.S., but less so in France and Germany. Had the U.S. matched the changes to Dutch tax policy, Danish transfer policy, or other factors of most other countries, it could have achieved more inclusive income growth than observed. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

The Role of Hexokinase and Hexose Transporters in Preferential Use of Glucose over Fructose and Downstream Metabolic Pathways in the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

The development of efficient bioprocesses requires inexpensive and renewable substrates. Molasses, a by-product of the sugar industry, contains mostly sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose, both easily absorbed by microorganisms. Yarrowia lipolytica, a platform for the production of various chemicals, can be engineered for sucrose utilization by heterologous invertase expression, yet the problem of preferential use of glucose over fructose remains, as fructose consumption begins only after glucose depletion what significantly extends the bioprocesses. We investigated the role of hexose transporters and hexokinase (native and fructophilic) in this preference. Analysis of growth profiles and kinetics of monosaccharide utilization has proven that the glucose preference in Y. lipolytica depends primarily on the affinity of native hexokinase for glucose. Interestingly, combined overexpression of either hexokinase with hexose transporters significantly accelerated citric acid biosynthesis and enhanced pentose phosphate pathway leading to secretion of polyols (31.5 g/L vs. no polyols in the control strain). So far, polyol biosynthesis was efficient in glycerol-containing media. Moreover, overexpression of fructophilic hexokinase in combination with hexose transporters not only shortened this process to 48 h (84 h for the medium with glycerol) but also allowed to obtain 23% more polyols (40 g/L) compared to the glycerol medium (32.5 g/L).

Growth-profile configuration for specific deformations of tubular organs: A study of growth-induced thinning and dilation of the human cervix

Growth is a significant factor that results in deformations of tubular organs, and particular deformations associated with growth enable tubular organs to perform certain physiological functions. Configuring growth profiles that achieve particular deformation patterns is critical for analyzing potential pathological conditions and for developing corresponding clinical treatments for tubular organ dysfunctions. However, deformation-targeted growth is rarely studied. In this article, the human cervix during pregnancy is studied as an example to show how cervical thinning and dilation are generated by growth. An advanced hyperelasticity theory called morphoelasticity is employed to model the deformations, and a growth tensor is used to represent growth in three principle directions. The computational results demonstrate that both negative radial growth and positive circumferential growth facilitate thinning and dilation. Modeling such mixed growth represents an advancement beyond commonly used uniform growth inside tissues to study tubular deformations. The results reveal that complex growth may occur inside tissues to achieve certain tubular deformations. Integration of further biochemical and cellular activities that initiate and mediate such complex growth remains to be explored.

Estimating Real-Time qPCR Amplification Efficiency from Single-Reaction Data

Methods for estimating the qPCR amplification efficiency E from data for single reactions are tested on six multireplicate datasets, with emphasis on their performance as a function of the range of cycles n1–n2 included in the analysis. The two-parameter exponential growth (EG) model that has been relied upon almost exclusively does not allow for the decline of E(n) with increasing cycle number n through the growth region and accordingly gives low-biased estimates. Further, the standard procedure of “baselining”—separately estimating and subtracting a baseline before analysis—leads to reduced precision. The three-parameter logistic model (LRE) does allow for such decline and includes a parameter E0 that represents E through the baseline region. Several four-parameter extensions of this model that accommodate some asymmetry in the growth profiles but still retain the significance of E0 are tested against the LRE and EG models. The recursion method of Carr and Moore also describes a declining E(n) but tacitly assumes E0 = 2 in the baseline region. Two modifications that permit varying E0 are tested, as well as a recursion method that directly fits E(n) to a sigmoidal function. All but the last of these can give E0 estimates that agree fairly well with calibration-based estimates but perform best when the calculations are extended to only about one cycle below the first-derivative maximum (FDM). The LRE model performs as well as any of the four-parameter forms and is easier to use. Its proper implementation requires fitting to it plus a suitable baseline function, which typically requires four–six adjustable parameters in a nonlinear least-squares fit.