Improving the yield of carbohydrate to lipid conversion and lipid productivity are two critical goals to develop an economically feasible process to commercialize microbial oils. Lignocellulosic sugars are potential low-cost carbon sources for this process but their use is limited by the toxic compounds produced during biomass pretreatment at high solids loading, and by the pentose sugars (mainly xylose) which are not efficiently metabolized by many microorganisms. Adaptive laboratory evolution was used to select a Rhodosporidium toruloides strain with robust growth in non-detoxified wheat straw hydrolysates, produced at 20% solids loading, and better xylose consumption rate. An arabinose-inducible cre-lox recombination system was developed in this evolved strain that was further engineered to express a second copy of the native DGAT1 and SCD1 genes under control of the native xylose reductase (XYL1) promoter. Fed-batch cultivation of the engineered strain in 7-L bioreactors produced 39.5 g lipid/L at a rate of 0.334 g/Lh and 0.179 g/g yield, the best results reported in R. toruloides with non-detoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates to date.

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Online social networks are increasingly used by the population on a daily basis. They are considered a powerful tool for science communication and their potential as educational tools is emerging. However, their usefulness in academic practice is still a matter of debate. Here, we present the results of our pioneering experience teaching a full Basic Microbiology course via Twitter (#microMOOCSEM), consisting of 28 lessons of 40-45 minutes duration each, at a tweet per minute rate during 10 weeks. Lessons were prepared by 30 different lecturers, covering most basic areas in Microbiology and some monographic topics of general interest (malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, etc.). Data analysis on the impact and acceptance of the course were largely affirmative, promoting a 330% enhancement in the followers and a >350-fold increase of the number of visits per month to the Twitter account of the host institution, the Spanish Society for Microbiology. Almost one third of the course followers were located overseas. Our study indicates that Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) via Twitter are highly dynamic, interactive, and accessible to great audiences, providing a valuable tool for social learning and communicating science. This strategy attracts the interest of students towards particular topics in the field, efficiently complementing customary academic activities, especially in multidisciplinary areas like Microbiology.

The chemical constituents of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the leaves of Calycolpus moritzianus (O. Berg) Burret, syn Psidium caudatum Mc Vaught, collected in November 2006 in Mérida State,Venezuela, were identified by GC-MS analysis. Thirty components (91.1% of the sample) were identified, of which the seven major ones were β-caryophyllene (21.9%), α-pinene (10.9%), viridiflorol (9.7%), β-selinene (6.1%), α-copaene (6.3%), α-selinene (5.3%) and γ-eudesmol (5.1%). The oil was found to have antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC (6538) and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC (29212), with MIC values of 60 μg/mL and 180 μg/mL, respectively.

on behalf of the Effective Coverage Think Tank Group* Intervention coverage-the proportion of the population with a health-care need who receive care-does not account for intervention quality and potentially overestimates health benefits of services provided to populations. Effective coverage introduces the dimension of quality of care to the measurement of intervention coverage. Many definitions and methodological approaches to measuring effective coverage have been developed, resulting in confusion over definition, calculation, interpretation, and monitoring of these measures. To develop a consensus on the definition and measurement of effective coverage for maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (MNCAHN), WHO and UNICEF convened a group of experts, the Effective Coverage Think Tank Group, to make recommendations for standardising the definition of effective coverage, measurement approaches for effective coverage, indicators of effective coverage in MNCAHN, and to develop future effective coverage research priorities. Via a series of consultations, the group recommended that effective coverage be defined as the proportion of a population in need of a service that resulted in a positive health outcome from the service. The proposed effective coverage measures and care cascade steps can be applied to further develop effective coverage measures across a broad range of MNCAHN services. Furthermore, advances in measurement of effective coverage could improve monitoring efforts towards the achievement of universal health coverage.