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Frederique Pasquali

Bio: Frederique Pasquali is an academic researcher from University of Bologna. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Salmonella. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 54 publications receiving 1886 citations.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.
Abstract: A prototype decision support IT-tool for the food industry was developed in the STARTEC project. Typical processes and decision steps were mapped using real life production scenarios of participating food companies manufacturing complex ready-to-eat foods. Companies looked for a more integrated approach when making food safety decisions that would align with existing HACCP systems. The tool was designed with shelf life assessments and data on safety, quality, and costs, using a pasta salad meal as a case product. The process flow chart was used as starting point, with simulation options at each process step. Key parameters like pH, water activity, costs of ingredients and salaries, and default models for calculations of Listeria monocytogenes, quality scores, and vitamin C, were placed in an interactive database. Customization of the models and settings was possible on the user-interface. The simulation module outputs were provided as detailed curves or categorized as "good"; "sufficient"; or "corrective action needed" based on threshold limit values set by the user. Possible corrective actions were suggested by the system. The tool was tested and approved by end-users based on selected ready-to-eat food products. Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.

1,187 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of an atmospheric cold plasma apparatus (air DBD, 15kV) on the safety, antioxidant activity and quality of radicchio (red chicory, Cichorium intybus L) was investigated after 15 and 30min of treatment (in afterglow at 70mm from the discharge, at 22 °C and 60% of RH) and during storage Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated on radicichio leaves was significantly reduced after 15min cold plasma treatment (−135 log MPN/cm 2 )

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Plasmid pFPTB1 is one of the few completely sequenced plasmids from S. Typhimurium and harbours a novel transposon-like structure consisting of a Tn3-related part containing the bla(TEM-135) gene for ampicillin resistance and a TN1721-related parts containing the tetR-tet(A) genes for tetracycline resistance.
Abstract: Objectives The complete nucleotide sequence of the 12 656 bp plasmid pFPTB1 from Salmonella enterica subsp enterica serovar Typhimurium, which mediates resistance to tetracyclines and ampicillin, was determined The plasmid was analysed for potential reading frames and structural features indicative of transposons and transposon relics Methods Plasmid pFPTB1 was transformed into Escherichia coli JM109, overlapping restriction fragments were cloned into E coli plasmid vectors and sequenced In vitro susceptibility testing was carried out to confirm the resistance phenotype mediated by this plasmid Results Plasmid pFPTB1 contains a complete Tn3-like transposon of 4950 bp consisting of the left terminal repeat, Tn3-related tnpR and tnpA genes for transposition functions, a novel gene for ampicillin resistance bla(TEM-135), and the right terminal repeat Immediately downstream, the terminal 5215 bp at the right end of a Tn1721-like transposon, including the right terminal repeat, a truncated transposase gene, as well as the genes tet(A) and tetR for tetracycline resistance, were detected A 5 bp direct repeat, TAAAA, was seen immediately upstream of the Tn3 part and immediately downstream of the Tn1721 part Plasmid pFPTB1 also carries a replication region similar to that of the Klebsiella pneumoniae plasmid pJHCMW1 Conclusion Plasmid pFPTB1 is one of the few completely sequenced plasmids from S Typhimurium and harbours a novel transposon-like structure consisting of a Tn3-related part containing the bla(TEM-135) gene for ampicillin resistance and a Tn1721-related part containing the tetR-tet(A) genes for tetracycline resistance

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: According to in vitro MPC data, ciprofloxacin showed a better efficacy than enrofl oxacin, in preventing the selection of E. coli, S. Typhimurium and P. aeruginosa single-step mutants.

53 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results of this international trial demonstrate that the evaluated real-time PCR-based method represents an excellent alterative to the ISO standard since it shows a higher performance as well as reduce the extent of the analytical process, and can be easily implemented routinely by the competent authorities and food industry laboratories.

50 citations


Cited by
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01 Jun 2012
TL;DR: SPAdes as mentioned in this paper is a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data).
Abstract: The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.

10,124 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.
Abstract: A prototype decision support IT-tool for the food industry was developed in the STARTEC project. Typical processes and decision steps were mapped using real life production scenarios of participating food companies manufacturing complex ready-to-eat foods. Companies looked for a more integrated approach when making food safety decisions that would align with existing HACCP systems. The tool was designed with shelf life assessments and data on safety, quality, and costs, using a pasta salad meal as a case product. The process flow chart was used as starting point, with simulation options at each process step. Key parameters like pH, water activity, costs of ingredients and salaries, and default models for calculations of Listeria monocytogenes, quality scores, and vitamin C, were placed in an interactive database. Customization of the models and settings was possible on the user-interface. The simulation module outputs were provided as detailed curves or categorized as "good"; "sufficient"; or "corrective action needed" based on threshold limit values set by the user. Possible corrective actions were suggested by the system. The tool was tested and approved by end-users based on selected ready-to-eat food products. Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.

1,187 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bacteria carry extrachromosomal, self-replicating genetic elements called plasmids, which do not carry genes essential for the growth of host cells under nonstressed conditions.
Abstract: Bacteria carry extrachromosomal, self-replicating genetic elements called plasmids. A plasmid is defined as a double-stranded, circular DNA molecule capable of autonomous replication. By definition, plasmids do not carry genes essential for the growth of host cells under nonstressed conditions ([109

1,093 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Keith Poole1
TL;DR: Given the clinical significance of multidrug (and drug-specific) exporters, efflux must be considered in formulating strategies/approaches to treating drug-resistant infections, both in the development of new agents less impacted by efflux and in targeting efflux directly with efflux inhibitors.
Abstract: Antibiotic resistance continues to plague antimicrobial chemotherapy of infectious disease. And while true biocide resistance is as yet unrealized, in vitro and in vivo episodes of reduced biocide susceptibility are common and the history of antibiotic resistance should not be ignored in the development and use of biocidal agents. Efflux mechanisms of resistance, both drug specific and multidrug, are important determinants of intrinsic and/or acquired resistance to these antimicrobials, with some accommodating both antibiotics and biocides. This latter raises the spectre (as yet generally unrealized) of biocide selection of multiple antibiotic-resistant organisms. Multidrug efflux mechanisms are broadly conserved in bacteria, are almost invariably chromosome-encoded and their expression in many instances results from mutations in regulatory genes. In contrast, drug-specific efflux mechanisms are generally encoded by plasmids and/or other mobile genetic elements (transposons, integrons) that carry additional resistance genes, and so their ready acquisition is compounded by their association with multidrug resistance. While there is some support for the latter efflux systems arising from efflux determinants of self-protection in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces spp. and, thus, intended as drug exporters, increasingly, chromosomal multidrug efflux determinants, at least in Gram-negative bacteria, appear not to be intended as drug exporters but as exporters with, perhaps, a variety of other roles in bacterial cells. Still, given the clinical significance of multidrug (and drug-specific) exporters, efflux must be considered in formulating strategies/approaches to treating drug-resistant infections, both in the development of new agents, for example, less impacted by efflux and in targeting efflux directly with efflux inhibitors.

979 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: New conjugative transposons, carrying different ribosomal protection tet genes, have been identified and an increase in the number of antibiotic resistance genes linked to tet genes has been found and whether these new elements may help to spread the tet genes they carry to a wider bacterial host range is discussed.
Abstract: This mini-review summarizes the changes in the field of bacterial acquired tetracycline resistance (tet) and oxytetracycline (otr) genes identified since the last major review in 2001. Thirty-eight acquired tetracycline resistant (Tcr) genes are known of which nine are new and include five genes coding for energy-dependent efflux proteins, two genes coding for ribosomal protection proteins, and two genes coding for tetracycline inactivating enzymes. The number of inactivating enzymes has increased from one to three, suggesting that work needs to be done to determine the role these enzymes play in bacterial resistance to tetracycline. In the same time period, 66 new genera have been identified which carry one or more of the previously described 29 Tcr genes. Included in the new genera is, for the first time, an obligate intracellular pathogen suggesting that this sheltered group of bacteria is capable of DNA exchange with non-obligate intracellular bacteria. The number of genera carrying ribosomal protection genes increased dramatically with the tet(M) gene now identified in 42 genera as compared with 24 and the tet(W) gene found in 17 new genera as compared to two genera in the last major review. New conjugative transposons, carrying different ribosomal protection tet genes, have been identified and an increase in the number of antibiotic resistance genes linked to tet genes has been found. Whether these new elements may help to spread the tet genes they carry to a wider bacterial host range is discussed.

870 citations