[Increased knowledge of ARIA and GINA guides 2006 to general physicians by an educational intervention]. / Incremento del conocimiento de las guías ARIA y GINA 2006 para médicos generales mediante una intervención educativa.

BACKGROUND: Educational strategies look for the increase of knowledge in physicians; they are a useful resourse for the diffusion among physicians of guides GINA and ARIA. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a course shop-like for physicians as an educative strategy. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A transversal study was performed, where knowledge was evaluated to primary contact physicians about recent currents of guides of GINA and ARIA 2006. RESULTS: There was a participation of 69 primary contact physicians who applied a questionnaire of 30 questions: 20 about asthma (GINA) and 10 about allergic rhinitis (ARIA) before and after a course shop-like for physicians; there was improvement on calification after educative strategy on knowledge about asthma and allergic rhinitis with a p = < 0.05. CONCLUSION: The educative strategy proposed as course shop-like for primary contact physicians is effective for teaching the guides of GINA and ARIA 2006.

Using banana to generate lactic acid through batch process fermentation.

We evaluated the usefulness of waste banana for generating lactic acid through batch fermentation, using Lactobacillus casei under three treatments. Two treatments consisted of substrates of diluted banana purée, one of which was enriched with salts and amino acids. The control treatment comprised a substrate suitable for L. casei growth. When fermentation was evaluated over time, significant differences (P<0.05) were found in the three treatments for each of five variables analyzed (generation and productivity of lactic acid, and consumption of glucose, fructose, and sucrose). Maximum productivity was (in g l(-1) h(-1)) 0.13 for the regular banana treatment, 1.49 for the enriched banana, and 1.48 for the control, with no significant differences found between the latter two treatments. Glucose consumption curves showed that L. casei made greater use of the substrate in the enriched banana and control treatments than in the regular banana treatment. For fructose intake, the enriched banana treatment showed significantly better (P<0.05) results than the regular one. Sucrose consumption was insignificant (P<0.05), probably because fermentation time was too short. Even when enriched, diluted banana purée is an ineffective substrate for L. casei, probably because it lacks nutrients.

Evaluation of plastic-composite supports in repeated fed-batch biofilm lactic acid fermentation by Lactobacillus casei.

A customized stirred-tank biofilm reactor was designed for plastic-composite supports (PCS). In repeated-batch studies, the PCS-biofilm reactors outperformed the suspended-cell reactors by demonstrating higher lactic acid productivities (2.45 g l(-1) h(-1) vs 1.75 g l(-1) h(-1)) and greater glucose consumption rates (3.27 g l(-1) h(-1) vs 2.09 g l(-1) h(-1)). In the repeated fed-batch studies, reactors were spiked periodically with concentrated glucose (75%) to maintain a concentration of approximately 80 g of glucose l(-1) in the bioreactor. In suspended-cell fermentations with 10 g of yeast extract (YE) l(-1) and zero, one, two, and three glucose spikes, the lactic acid productivities were 2.64, 1.58, 0.80, and 0.62 g l(-1) h(-1), respectively. In comparison, biofilm reactors with 7 g of YE l(-1) and zero, one, two, and three glucose spikes achieved lactic acid productivities of 4.20, 2.78, 0.66, and 0.94 g l(-1) h(-1), respectively. The use of nystatin (30 U ml(-1)) subdued the contaminating yeast population with no effect on the lactic acid productivity of the biofilm reactors, but it did affect productivity in the suspended-cell bioreactor. Overall, in repeated fed-batch fermentations, the biofilm reactors consistently outperformed the suspended-cell bioreactors, required less YE, and produced up to 146 g of lactic acid l(-1) with 7 g of YE l(-1), whereas the suspended-cell reactor produced 132 g l(-1) with 10 g of YE l(-1).