Search Results (88)

The use of natural bioactive compounds in edible coatings provides a sustainable approach to reducing food spoilage and meeting consumer demand for safer food preservation. In this study, bioactive extracts from Brassica juncea (green mustard, GM) and Raphanus sativus (radish tango, RT) sprouts were encapsulated into zein/chitosan (Z/CH) microparticles (MPs) using a complex coacervation–based encapsulation approach. The encapsulated microparticles (MPs), characterized by FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, demonstrated a high loading efficiency of up to 90% and maintained their antioxidant activity for up to 168 h. TGA and SEM tests confirmed that the edible films produced by incorporating these microparticles (MPs) into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan (CH) matrices had a more uniform microstructure and enhanced heat stability. The Z/CH/RT6:PVA (1:2) and Z/CH/GM6:CH (1:1) formulations of the films showed significant antioxidant and antibacterial action, with up to 22.4% DPPH inhibition and a 1-log decrease in Salmonella enterica CFU, respectively. Overall, the results underscore the promise of sprout-derived microparticles as components for developing active, biodegradable packaging films with improved functional properties. Full article

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) remains a common pathogen in poultry production. Although its clinical and economic impact in Europe has markedly declined in recent decades due to extensive vaccination, ongoing viral circulation continues to pose risks to animal health and provides opportunities for viral evolution. In this study, we investigated the molecular epidemiology of GI-19 and related strains in Spain using samples collected between 2008 and 2025. Partial S1 sequencing revealed a complex scenario involving three major clades and several minor ones, the latter likely resulting from independent introduction events from north-western Europe, particularly Denmark. Six distinct recombination events involving GI-13 and GI-19 parental strains—some apparently vaccine derived—were also identified, several of which showed wide geographical spread and long-term persistence. Both recombinant and non-recombinant variants were detected across multiple regions and production systems, indicating strong epidemiological connectivity among broilers, layers, and breeders. Although overall viral population size appeared stable over time, shifts in the predominance of specific clades and recombinant groups were observed, possibly reflecting fitness advantages of newly introduced or evolved variants and reduced cross-protection from existing immunity. These findings highlight the susceptibility of the poultry sector to repeated introductions, mixing, and the dissemination of IBV variants. Strengthened molecular surveillance and tailored control strategies, together with the periodic evaluation of vaccination practices and population immunity, are needed to limit viral circulation, reduce recombination opportunities, and mitigate the impact of IBV. Full article

Building upon a thermodynamic formalism, we show that one-dimensional self-gravitating systems in hydrostatic equilibrium with a uniform density are in maximal entropy states when submitted to adiabatic perturbations, i.e., perturbations that maintain the hydrostatic equilibrium. We also show that the same result holds for three-dimensional spherical systems when submitted to spherically symmetric adiabatic perturbations. We coin this phenomenon “thermodynamic blocking”, given its similarity to the more general “kinetic blocking”. This result underlines the importance of the thermodynamic formalism, which proves useful when kinetic equations break down. Full article

Endocrine disruptors contaminate indoor and outdoor air, water, and food. Besides modifications of the androgen/estrogen balance, endocrine disruptors can alter thyroid function, metabolic balance, immune defenses, and brain development during fetal life, childhood, and adolescence. Among the consequences of fetal exposure to endocrine disruptors, neurobehavioral disorders, particularly psychiatric disorders (for example, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), attention deficit disorders, and mood disorders, occupy a special place. Therefore, endocrine disruptors are also neuroendocrine disruptors. This review article first summarizes the direct and transgenerational effects of endocrine disruptors. Then, data from a French national cohort of patients whose mothers were treated with synthetic hormones (estrogens and/or progestogens) during their pregnancy(ies) are used to describe the psychiatric disorders developed by children exposed in utero and the multigenerational and potentially transgenerational impacts. Full article

In this review dedicated to the great protistologist Edouard Chatton (1883–1947), I wanted to highlight the originality and remarkable diversity of some dinoflagellate protists through the lens of cell biology. Their fossilized traces date back to more than 538 million years (Phanerozoic eon). However, they may be much older because acritarchs from the (Meso) Proterozoic era (1500 million years ago) could be their most primitive ancestors. Here, I described several representative examples of the various lifestyles of free-living (the autotrophic thecate Prorocentrum micans Ehrenberg and the heterotrophic athecate Noctiluca scintillans McCartney and other “pseudo-noctilucidae”, as well as the thecate Crypthecodinium cohnii Biecheler) and of parasitic dinoflagellates (the mixotroph Syndinium Chatton). Then, I compared the different dinoflagellate mitotic systems and reported observations on the eyespot (ocelloid), an organelle that is present in the binucleated Glenodinium foliaceum Stein and in some Warnowiidae dinoflagellates and can be considered an evolutionary marker. The diversity and innovations observed in mitosis, meiosis, reproduction, sexuality, cell cycle, locomotion, and nutrition allow us to affirm that dinoflagellates are among the most innovative unicells in the Kingdom Protista. Full article

Six secondary amine derivatives derived from salicylaldehyde (SA) were successfully synthesized in good to excellent yields and evaluated for their biological activities. The synthesized compounds exhibited remarkable antioxidant properties, as determined by ABTS and phenanthroline assays. Notably, compound 2 demonstrated an IC₅₀ value of 5.14 ± 0.11 µM in the ABTS assay, approximately six to nine times lower than the standards BHT and BHA. In the phenanthroline assay, all compounds showed inhibition capacities five to ten times greater than BHT and comparable to BHA, with A_0.5 values ranging from 9.42 to 31.73 µM. Among these, compound 5 displayed the lowest A_0.5 value of 9.42 ± 1.02 µM. The anti-inflammatory activity, assessed through BSA denaturation, revealed that compounds 2 and 5 were the most promising, although their activity was moderate compared to the standard diclofenac. The insecticidal potential of the compounds was evaluated against the storage insect pest Tribolium castaneum. Among the tested derivatives, compounds 1 and 6 exhibited the highest efficacy, achieving maximum mortality rates of 73.31% and 76.67%, respectively, over a seven-day treatment period. Furthermore, the molecular geometry, electronic properties, and intramolecular interactions of all compounds were investigated using DFT calculations. Thermodynamic analyses of the antioxidant mechanisms suggested that the NH bond is the most likely site for free radical attacks. These findings underscore the significant biological potential of the synthesized salicylaldehyde-derived secondary amines. Full article

The hazardousness of solvents used in synthetic organic chemistry is well established. In this context, it is relevant to search for safer and greener alternatives. Within the last decades, deep eutectic solvents have been considered as possible and promising alternatives. Consequently, this study aims at using deep eutectic solvents to synthesize an emerging class of heteroaromatic compounds named thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazoles, for which interest is growing in the field of organics, electronics, and biology. To address this challenge, we developed a straightforward synthetic protocol consisting of condensing dithiooxamide and aromatic aldehyde in deep eutectic solvents to yield the desired thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole without further purification. The first hit was obtained with the well-known L-proline:glycerol (1:2) mixture at 130 °C. However, dithiooxamide is degraded under these conditions, leading to the formation of impurities that may arise from the consequent amount of reactive L-proline. Reaction conditions were optimized by modifying the deep eutectic solvent nature and proportions, applying various temperatures, changing the activation and heating source, or adding auxiliary oxidants. As a consequence, eight thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazoles were synthesized in equal or better yields (20 to 75%) than the reported procedure under safe and eco-friendly conditions in a mixture of L-proline and ethylene glycol (1:50) with sodium metabisulfite at 130 °C for one hour. Full article

In the context of global warming, renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar power, have garnered increasing attention in recent decades. Accurate forecasting of the energy output in microgrids (MGs) is essential for optimizing energy management, reducing maintenance costs, and prolonging the lifespan of energy storage systems. This study proposes an innovative approach to solar irradiance forecasting based on the theory of belief functions, introducing a novel and flexible evidential method for short-to-medium-term predictions. The proposed machine learning model is designed to effectively handle missing data and make optimal use of available information. By integrating multiple predictive models, each focusing on different meteorological factors, the approach enhances forecasting accuracy. The Yager combination method and pignistic transformation are utilized to aggregate the individual models. Applied to a publicly available dataset, the method achieved promising results, with an average root mean square error (RMS) of 27.83 W/m² calculated from eight distinct forecast days. This performance surpasses the best reported results of 30.21 W/m² from recent comparable studies for one-day-ahead solar irradiance forecasting. Comparisons with deep learning-based methods, such as long short-term memory (LSTM) networks and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), demonstrate that the proposed approach is competitive with state-of-the-art techniques, delivering reliable predictions with significantly less training data. The full potential and limitations of the proposed approach are also discussed. Full article

3-N-allylrhodanine was condensed with 5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-thiophene-2-carbaldehyde in an L-proline-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) to obtain the π-conjugated heterocyclic rhodanine compound (5Z)-3-allyl-5-{[5-(4-methoxyphenyl)thiophen-2-yl]methylidene}-2-sulfanylidene-1,3-thiazolidin-4-one (2). Compound 2 was characterized by NMR spectroscopy, and its UV-vis spectrum was compared with that of the related derivative 3-allyl-5-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-2-sulfanylidene-1,3-thiazolidin-4-one (1). Preliminary results revealed that compound 2 is emissive at room temperature in solution. Full article

The screening of plant-derived compounds with anti-cancer properties is a promising strategy to meet the growing need for new, safe and effective anti-cancer drugs. Justicidin B is a plants secondary metabolite that displays anti-cancer properties in several tumor cells. Therefore, it represents a good candidate. We used the 3R-compliant organism Caenorhabditis elegans to evaluate the safety of justicidin B produced by in vitro-grown adventitious roots of Linum lewisii. We showed that a dose of 100 µg/mL justicidin B does not affect worm vitality in either short-term or chronic administration; in contrast, the 200 µg/mL dose induces a lifespan reduction, but only in short-term daily treatment. We attributed this effect to its accumulation in lipofuscin granules in the pharynx as observed through confocal analysis. HPLC analysis confirmed the higher accumulation justicidin B with a 200 µg/mL dose but also revealed the presence of metabolic derivatives that could be responsible for the toxicity. We also demonstrated that the 100 µg/mL dose does not affect worm fertility or development. Our results highlight the safety of justicidin B, supporting its employment in cancer therapy, and encourage the use of a C. elegans model as an appropriate tool to assess compounds’ toxicity before moving to more complex organisms. Full article

To date, the advanced synthetic approaches for palladium nanoparticle-based catalysts involve multistep, toxic, and high-cost fabrication routes with low catalytic and sensing performance. In this work, we introduce a new one-shot approach to produce highly sensitive Pd nanocomposites using a large-area polymer self-assembly strategy. This synthesis method allowed us to control the Pd nanoparticle shape and to tailor their plasmonic band positions in a wide light spectral range from ~350 to ~800 nm. We thus determined the critical synthesis conditions that give rise to a ringlike morphology in a reproducible manner. No need for a reducing agent and preliminary functionalization of the surface supporting the nanoparticles upon synthesis. To the best of our knowledge, few works have demonstrated the good performance of PdNPs in sensing. Here, we have demonstrated a robust SERS response for 4-mercaptopyridine with an enhancement factor of 4.2 × 10⁵. We were able to exceed this high value, which matches the current maximum found in the literature, by decreasing the gap distances between Pd nanorings due to the high density of hotspots and the exacerbation of the coupling effect between PdNPs. These tailored products provide new insights for the use of Pd nanomaterials in photocatalysis applications, according to the well-established catalytic performance of Pd materials obtained in this work. Full article

We present an analysis showcasing how the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS), a proposed NASA Probe-class mission, will significantly increase our understanding of supermassive black holes undergoing mergers—from kpc to sub-pc scales. In particular, the AXIS point spread function, field of view, and effective area are expected to result in (1) the detection of hundreds to thousands of new dual AGNs across the redshift range $0<z<5$ and (2) blind searches for binary AGNs that are exhibiting merger signatures in their light curves and spectra. AXIS will detect some of the highest-redshift dual AGNs to date, over a large range of physical separations. The large sample of AGN pairs detected by AXIS (over a magnitude more than currently known) will result in the first X-ray study that quantifies the frequency of dual AGNs as a function of redshift up to $z=4$. Full article

The existence of ‘peculiar’ velocities due to the formation of cosmic structure marks a point of discord between the real universe and the usually assumed Friedmann–Lemaítre–Robertson–Walker metric, which accomodates only the smooth Hubble expansion on large scales. In the standard $\Lambda$CDM model framework, Type Ia supernovae data are routinely “corrected” for the peculiar velocities of both the observer and the supernova host galaxies relative to the cosmic rest frame, in order to infer evidence for acceleration of the expansion rate from their Hubble diagram. However, observations indicate a strong, coherent local bulk flow that continues outward without decaying out to a redshift $z\gtrsim 0.1$, contrary to the $\Lambda$CDM expectation. By querying the halo catalogue of the Dark Sky Hubble-volume N-body simulation, we find that an observer placed in an unusual environment like our local universe should see correlations between supernovae in the JLA catalogue that are 2–8 times stronger than seen by a typical or Copernican observer. This accounts for our finding that peculiar velocity corrections have a large impact on the value of the cosmological constant inferred from supernova data. We also demonstrate that local universe-like observers will infer a downward biased value of the clustering parameter $S_8$ from comparing the density and velocity fields. More realistic modelling of the peculiar local universe is thus essential for correctly interpreting cosmological data. Full article

Plant secondary metabolites have great applications in the nutritional and cosmetic aspects of human health. Terpenes, and in particular bioactive diterpenoids, represent an important group of compounds found in Salvia species. Their production in plants is often limited, and chemical synthesis is often not economically feasible. Biotechnological approaches using plant cell and tissue cultures can be routinely established under sterile conditions from explants for biomass production and the extraction of secondary metabolites. The biosynthesis and accumulation of bioactive diterpenoids in vitro in Salvia cells and tissues can be enhanced by strain improvement, techniques to select high-producing cell lines, optimisation of the growth medium, use of specific precursors or elicitors, induction of their release into the culture medium, and the overexpression of genes. This review analyses the biotechnological techniques applied to the in vitro culture of Salvia cells and tissues to enhance the production and accumulation of bioactive diterpenoids and summarises their biological activities. Full article

We discuss applications of the study of the new and barely explored class of changing-look (CL) narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and comment on their detection with the space mission SVOM (Space Variable Objects Monitor). We highlight the case of NGC 1566, which is outstanding in many respects, for instance as one of the nearest known CL AGN undergoing exceptional outbursts. Its NLS1 nature is discussed, and we take it as a nearby prototype for systems that could be discovered and studied in the near future, including with SVOM. Finally, we briefly examine the broader implications and applications of CL events in NLS1 galaxies and show that such systems, once discovered in larger numbers, will greatly advance our understanding of the physics of the environment of rapidly growing supermassive black holes. This White Paper is part of a sequence of publications which explore aspects of our understanding of (CL) NLS1 galaxy physics with future missions. Full article