Continuous Ketone Monitoring via Wearable Microneedle Patch Platform.

Ketone bodies (KBs), especially ß-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), have gained tremendous attention as potential biomarkers as their presence in bodily fluids is closely associated with health and wellness. While a variety of blood fingerstick test strips are available for self-testing of BHB, there are major needs for wearable devices capable of continuously tracking changing BHB concentrations. To address these needs, we present here the first demonstration of a wearable microneedle-based continuous ketone monitoring (CKM) in human interstitial fluid (ISF) and illustrate its ability to closely follow the intake of ketone drinks. To ensure highly stable and selective continuous detection of ISF BHB, the new enzymatic microneedle BHB sensor relies on a gold-coated platinum working electrode modified with a reagent layer containing toluidine blue O (TBO) redox mediator, ß-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBD) enzyme, a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) cofactor, along with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), chitosan (Chit), and a poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) outer protective layer. The skin-worn microneedle sensing device operates with a miniaturized electrochemical analyzer connected wirelessly to a mobile electronic device for capturing, processing, and displaying the data. Cytotoxicity and skin penetration studies indicate the absence of potential harmful effects. A pilot study involving multiple human subjects evaluated continuous BHB monitoring in human ISF, against gold standard BHB meter measurements, revealing the close correlation between the two methods. Such microneedle-based CKM offers considerable promise for dynamic BHB tracking toward the management of diabetic ketoacidosis and personal nutrition and wellness.

Impact of water potential on growth and germination of Fusarium solani soilborne pathogen of peanut

Studies were conducted to determine the effect of osmotic and matric stress on germination and growth of two Fusarium solani strains, the etiological agent responsible of peanut brown root rot. Both strains had similar osmotic and matric potential ranges that allowed growth, being the latter one narrower. F. solani showed the ability to grow down to -14 MPa at 25 °C in non-ionic modified osmotic medium, while under matric stress this was limited to -8.4 MPa at 25 °C. However, both strains were seen to respond differently to decreasing osmotic and matric potentials, during early stages of germination. One strain (RC 338) showed to be more sensitive to matric than osmotic (non ionic) and the other one (RC 386) showed to be more sensitive to osmotic than matric imposed water stress. After 24 h of incubation, both isolates behaved similarly. The minimum water potential for germination was -8.4 MPa on glycerol amended media and -5.6 MPa for NaCl and PEG amended media, respectively. The knowledge of the water potential range which allow mycelia growth and spore germination of F. solani provides an inside to the likely behaviour of this devastating soilborne plant pathogen in nature and has important practical implications.

Toxigenic profile and AFLP variability of Alternaria alternata and Alternaria infectoria occurring on wheat

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the ability to produce alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME) and tenuazonic acid (TA) by A. alternata and A. infectoria strains recovered from wheat kernels obtained from one of the main production area in Argentina; to confirm using AFLPs molecular markers the identify of the isolates up to species level, and to evaluate the intra and inter-specific genetic diversity of these two Alternaria species. Among all the Alternaria strains tested (254), 84% of them were able to produce mycotoxins. The most frequent profile of toxin production found was the co-production of AOH and AME in both species tested. TA was only produced by strains of A. alternata. Amplified fragment polymorphism (AFLPs) analysis was applied to a set of 89 isolates of Alternaria spp (40 were A. infectoria and 49 were A. alternata) in order to confirm the morphological identification. The results showed that AFLPs are powerful diagnostic tool for differentiating between A. alternata and A. infectoria. Indeed, in the current study the outgroup strains, A. tenuissima was consistently classified. Characteristic polymorphic bands separated these two species regardless of the primer combination used. Related to intraspecific variability, A. alternata and A. infectoria isolates evaluated seemed to form and homogeneous group with a high degree of similarity among the isolates within each species. However, there was more scoreable polymorphism within A. alternata than within A. infectoria isolates. There was a concordance between morphological identification and separation up to species level using molecular markers. Clear polymorphism both within and between species showed that AFLP can be used to asses genetic variation in A. alternata and A. infectoria. The most important finding of the present study was the report on AOH and AME production by A. infectoria strains isolated from wheat kernels in Argentina on a semisynthetic media for the first time. Also, specific bands for A. alternata and A. infectoria have been identified; these may be useful for the design of specific PCR primers in order to differentiate these species and to detect them in cereals.

Análisis de situación del desarrollo de recursos humanos para la salud en Bolivia / Analysis of the development of human resources for health in Bolivia

El presente documento, no es una revisión exhaustiva de los diferentes aspectos del desarrollo de los recursos humanos en salud, porque no fue esa la intención del trabajo, no existían muchas fuentes de información sistematizada de tipo cuantitativo y resulta muy difícil realizar un dimensionamiento de los aspectos cualitativos. Sin embargo, representa el esfuerzo de compilar información proveniente de encuestas de fuente primaria de los principales actores que se encuentran involucrados en el Desarrollo de Recursos Humanos en Bolivia