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  • Open access
  • 119 Reads
Nanoparticles mutagenicity: search for matches and potential limitations of Comet assay and Ames test

One of main problems of nanotoxicology is related to difficulty in selection of the most appropriate mutagenicity test. For instance, it is an open question, whether or not Ames test is relevant for nanoparticles. The major principles and mechanisms of action supposed to be different, because Ames test is based on prokaryotic responses, while other available methods are based on eukaryotic cells. Mutagenicity of 28 silica- and metal oxide nanoparticles was evaluated by means of combination of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. Classification models were developed for mutagenicity of nanoparticles in Ames and Comet tests. Quantitative comparison of results was followed by self-organizing map modeling. Self-organizing maps were employed to find topology of a whole data set on the basis of developed classification models and known endpoints. It was found, that ionic characteristics were responsible for mutagenicity. Data visualization technique was helpful to understand specific interactions between important descriptors in different models. For series of untested NPs mutagenicity/safety were predicted.

  • Open access
  • 145 Reads
Isolation of native Aspergillus niger from Ecuadorian Amazon to produce citric acid from sugarcane bagasse.  

Amazonian fungal identification is crucial to unravel their biodiversity and to elucidate their potential use in several industrial and biotechnological processes. This research aims to isolate and identify Aspergillus niger from Ecuadorian Amazon region in order to assess their capability to produce citric acid from sugar cane bagasse fermentation. Sampling point were settled to perform the distribution pattern of the fungi in the main areas of sugar cane production in Puyo municipality. For isolation, raw material was placed under humid chambers to produce sporulation. After growth, isolates were plated in Potato Dextrose Agar media for purification. Morpho-cultural characterization were assessed for isolates identification . A complete randomized experimental design was conducted under controlled conditions to search out the capability of isolates to produce citric acid.  Six days fermentation at pH 2 and three levels of substrates loading  (20, 30 and 40 mg bagasse L-1) were the experimental variables. Bagasse was cut into small pieces to homogenization and a concentration of 1x107 spores ml-1 was inoculated. Morpho-cultural analysis threw four isolates with features related to A. niger. Black aerial mycelia, fast growth and copious sporulation matched with the main characteristics of the fungus. The citric acid assay showed the most favourable conditions were provided by the substrate loaded with 30 mg L-1 of bagasse, which  yielded 9.9 g of citric acid per kilogram of bagasse. These results show the potential of native Amazonian A. niger to produce citric acid and to perform another trials with other raw material under different conditions.

 

  • Open access
  • 253 Reads
Thyme and rosemary essential oils as an alternative control of plant-parasitic nematodes.

Since ancient times, essential oils have been used as an alternative against pests. Recently, the respect for the environment and public health has increased and has motivated the search for natural nematicides, biodegradable and with little or no toxicity. In this study, the nematicidal activity (in vitro) against parasite nematodes isolated from plants was evaluated. The essential oils evaluated were thyme and rosemary, both of them applied at three different concentrations. The nematicidal activity was evaluated during 48 hours and it was determined at different time intervals. The best results were obtained using the lowest concentration of essential oil of thyme, after 8 h of exposure, where the number of nematodes was reduced by about 90%. Rosemary essential oil showed a similar effect (70.2% mortality), but at a higher concentration. These results demonstrate that essential oils could be considered as an alternative for pest control with a promising application in agriculture.

  • Open access
  • 143 Reads
Complex Network Analysis of General Tax Law

The General Tax Act /Act 58/2003 (GTA) is the backbone of the Spanish tax system. On the other hand, the analysis of complex social networks allows us to study the structure-property relationships in different complex political systems. In this paper, we built, for the first time, a complex network (GTAN) that encodes the GTA structure. This involves analyzing the hierarchical structure of the GTA, explicit citations between the different parts of the Act, and any alterations during its lifetime. The GTAN has 1923 nodes (Law > titles > chapters > articles > etc.) and 2400 links (norm structure or citation relationships). We calculated node centralities of articles to study the topology of the network and compare GTAN with Erdös-Renyi random networks. This opens a new gate to the study legal norms and political systems combining the classical theoretical studies with Social Network Analysis methods.

  • Open access
  • 166 Reads
CRISPR-Cas Gene Editing: Regulatory Issues and Applications

CRISPR-Cas gene editing methods is an emerging powerful tools in biosciences. Applications of CRISPR to synthetics biology, biotechnology, personalized medicine, drug discovery etc, generates a series of legal and bioethics questions. This generates in turn the necessity of new regulatory issues. In this work we discuss more recent applications of CRIPSR focused on drug discovery with incidence of human genome information. This includes, but is not limited to: resistance-selection studies of antimalarial drugs; new animal models for drug assay, etc. We also, discuss the legal regulation and ethical aspects of this area of human genome editing related to drug discovery.

  • Open access
  • 216 Reads
MOL2NET: FROM MOLECULES TO NETWORKS (PROC. BOOK) 2018, Vol. 2, 480 pp.

Proceedings of the conference MOL2NET International Conference on Multidisciplinary Sciences (2nd edition), 2016. Year-Round conferences hosted by MDPI Sciforum, Basel, Switzerland with > 10 associated in person workshops in USA, Spain, China, Chile, Brazil, etc. Some of the workshops are tSRI-08 St Thomas University (STU)- Miami Dade College (MDC), Miami, USA; IWMEDIC-04 UDC, Coruña, Spain, etc. This edition attracted >200 communications submitted by >400 authors. Thank you very much to all colleagues for your kind support.

  • Open access
  • 105 Reads
MOL2NET: FROM MOLECULES TO NETWORKS (PROC. BOOK), 2018, Vol. 1, 761 pp.

We are glad to invite all colleagues worldwide to participate on a new edition of this International Conference Series. The official title of this conference series is MOL2NET International Conference Series on Multidisciplinary Sciences. MOL2NET (the conference running title) is the acronym of the lemma of the conference: From Molecules to Networks. This running title is inspired by the possibility of multidisciplinary collaborations in science. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, Chemistry (All areas), Mathematics (Applied), Physics (Applied), Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Biology and Life Sciences (All areas), Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Education, along with Computer Sciences, Data Analysis, Statistics, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Bioinformatics, Systems Biology, and Complex Networks Sciences. See the following note to authors on topics outside the scope of the conference and associated workshops . The Scientific Headquarters (HQs) of this conference series are in the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Biscay. However, the idea of this multidisciplinary conference emerged from the melting pot formed as the result of multiple collaborations of professors from many centers worldwide. Locally, the founders and strongest supporters of the conference are professors endowed by IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Sciences, professors from the two departments Department of Organic Chemistry I and Department of Organic Chemistry II of the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and professors from the Department of Computer Sciences of the University of Coruña (UDC). In addition, professors / researchers from the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), USA, the Natural Resources Research Institute, of the University of Minnesota, USA, and many other institutions are also founders and supporters of this conference, please see full committees lists.

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