•Application of cholesterol-assimilating bacteria into calcium-alginate beads for fermentation of cream.•Lacticaseibacillus paracasei L2A21K5 showed the highest reduction of cholesterol in ...cream.•Entrapped L. paracasei L2A21K5 caused a 44% reduction in cholesterol content of butter.•Low-cholesterol butter showed improved fatty acid composition, with lower atherogenic and thrombogenicity indices.•Sensorial analysis rated the low-cholesterol butter as good in appearance, consistency, and flavor.
This study focused on the application of three strains of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei to assimilate cholesterol in cream and butter. The strains were enclosed in calcium-alginate beads and incubated in cream at 30 °C for 15 h. Immobilization of lactobacilli cultures in calcium-alginate beads resulted in a 23% reduction in cholesterol (p < 0.05) in cream, whereas a negligible reduction was observed in cream fermented with free cells. Butter with a 44% reduction in cholesterol was produced from fermented cream by L. paracasei L2A21K5 entrapped in alginate beads. No significant (p > 0.05) changes in the fatty acid profile were observed in the low-cholesterol butter, except for a slight but significant increase in n-3 fatty acids (p < 0.05). In addition, the indices of atherogenicity and thrombogenicity were significantly reduced in the low-cholesterol butter (p < 0.05). Panelists rated the low-cholesterol butter as good in appearance, consistency, and flavor.
Maternal separation (MS) is an early life stress model that induces permanent changes in the central nervous system, impairing hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial working memory. ...There are compelling evidences for a role of hippocampal adenosine A(2A) receptors in stress-induced modifications related to cognition, thus opening a potential window for therapeutic intervention. Here, we submitted rats to MS and evaluated the long-lasting molecular, electrophysiological and behavioral impairments in adulthood. We then assessed the therapeutic potential of KW6002, a blocker of A(2A) receptors, in stress-impaired animals. We report that the blockade of A(2A) receptors was efficient in reverting the behavior, electrophysiological and morphological impairments induced by MS. In addition, this effect is associated with restoration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) activity, as both the plasma corticosterone levels and hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor expression pattern returned to physiological-like status after the treatment. These results reveal the involvement of A(2A) receptors in the stress-associated impairments and directly in the stress response system by showing that the dysfunction of the HPA-axis as well as the long-lasting synaptic and behavioral effects of MS can be reverted by targeting adenosine A(2A) receptors. These findings provide a novel evidence for the use of adenosine A(2A) receptor antagonists as potential therapy against psychopathologies.
Women at high inherited risk of ovarian cancer are offered risk‐reducing salpingo‐oophorectomy (RRSO) from age 35 to 45 years. Although potentially life‐saving, RRSO may induce symptoms that ...negatively affect quality of life and impair long‐term health. Clinical care following RRSO is often suboptimal. This scoping review describes how RRSO affects short‐ and long‐term health and provides evidence‐based international consensus recommendations for care from preoperative counselling to long‐term disease prevention. This includes the efficacy and safety of hormonal and non‐hormonal treatments for vasomotor symptoms, sleep disturbance and sexual dysfunction and effective approaches to prevent bone and cardiovascular disease.
For DEMO and beyond, liquid metal plasma-facing components are considered due to their resilience to erosion through flowed replacement, potential for cooling beyond conduction and inherent immunity ...to many of the issues of neutron loading compared to solid materials. The development curve of liquid metals is behind that of e.g. tungsten however, and tokamak-based research is currently somewhat limited in scope. Therefore, investigation into linear plasma devices can provide faster progress under controlled and well-diagnosed conditions in assessing many of the issues surrounding the use of liquid metals. The linear plasma devices Magnum-PSI and Pilot-PSI are capable of producing DEMO-relevant plasma fluxes, which well replicate expected divertor conditions, and the exploration of physics issues for tin (Sn) and lithium (Li) such as vapour shielding, erosion under high particle flux loading and overall power handling are reviewed here. A deeper understanding of erosion and deposition through this work indicates that stannane formation may play an important role in enhancing Sn erosion, while on the other hand the strong hydrogen isotope affinity reduces the evaporation rate and sputtering yields for Li. In combination with the strong redeposition rates, which have been observed under this type of high-density plasma, this implies that an increase in the operational temperature range, implying a power handling range of 20-25 MW m−2 for Sn and up to 12.5 MW m−2 for Li could be achieved. Vapour shielding may be expected to act as a self-protection mechanism in reducing the heat load to the substrate for off-normal events in the case of Sn, but may potentially be a continual mode of operation for Li.
Infections with protozoan parasites are a major cause of disease and mortality in many tropical countries of the world. Diseases caused by species of the genera Trypanosoma (Human African ...Trypanosomiasis and Chagas Disease) and Leishmania (various forms of Leishmaniasis) are among the seventeen "Neglected Tropical Diseases" (NTDs) defined by the WHO. Furthermore, malaria (caused by various Plasmodium species) can be considered a neglected disease in certain countries and with regard to availability and affordability of the antimalarials. Living organisms, especially plants, provide an innumerable number of molecules with potential for the treatment of many serious diseases. The current review attempts to give an overview on the potential of such plant-derived natural products as antiprotozoal leads and/or drugs in the fight against NTDs. In part I, a general description of the diseases, the current state of therapy and need for new therapeuticals, assay methods and strategies applied in the search for new plant derived natural products against these diseases and an overview on natural products of terpenoid origin with antiprotozoal potential were given. The present part II compiles the current knowledge on natural products with antiprotozoal activity that are derived from the shikimate pathway (lignans, coumarins, caffeic acid derivatives), quinones of various structural classes, compounds formed via the polyketide pathways (flavonoids and related compounds, chromenes and related benzopyrans and benzofurans, xanthones, acetogenins from Annonaceae and polyacetylenes) as well as the diverse classes of alkaloids. In total, both parts compile the literature on almost 900 different plant-derived natural products and their activity data, taken from over 800 references. These data, as the result of enormous efforts of numerous research groups world-wide, illustrate that plant secondary metabolites represent an immensely rich source of chemical diversity with an extremely high potential to yield a wealth of lead structures towards new therapies for NTDs. Only a small percentage, however, of the roughly 200,000 plant species on earth have been studied chemically and only a small percentage of these plants or their constituents has been investigated for antiprotozoal activity. The repository of plant-derived natural products hence deserves to be investigated even more intensely than it has been up to present.
Abstract
Rare-earth orthochromites with distorted perovskite structure (e.g. RCrO
3
, R = Sm, Gd) have been under strong debate with respect to the origin of their ferroelectric order. Of particular ...interest is the question of whether such orthochromites are, in fact, magnetically driven improper ferroelectrics, as many rare-earth manganites or orthoferrites. Here we show, by studying at the atomic scale the rare-earth SmCrO
3
system that a distortion of the Sm local environment emerges within the paramagnetic phase, near room temperature. Our Electric Field Gradient measurements combined with first-principles calculations show that the emergent phase cannot be simply ascribed to the
Pna
2
1
structure as reported for GdCrO
3
or SmCrO
3
. Instead a local inhomogeneous state, where regular non-polar and polar distorted environments coexist, develops at low temperatures.
Macroalgae have been recently used for different applications in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry since they do not compete for land and freshwater against other resources. Moreover, ...they have been highlighted as a potential source of bioactive compounds. Red algae (Rhodophyta) are the largest group of seaweeds, including around 6000 different species, thus it can be hypothesized that they are a potential source of bioactive compounds. Sulfated polysaccharides, mainly agar and carrageenans, are the most relevant and exploited compounds of red algae. Other potential molecules are essential fatty acids, phycobiliproteins, vitamins, minerals, and other secondary metabolites. All these compounds have been demonstrated to exert several biological activities, among which antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antimicrobial properties can be highlighted. Nevertheless, these properties need to be further tested on in vivo experiments and go in-depth in the study of the mechanism of action of the specific molecules and the understanding of the structure–activity relation. At last, the extraction technologies are essential for the correct isolation of the molecules, in a cost-effective way, to facilitate the scale-up of the processes and their further application by the industry. This manuscript is aimed at describing the fundamental composition of red algae and their most studied biological properties to pave the way to the utilization of this underused resource.
A comparative study of the magnetocaloric effect and refrigerant capacitance properties of orthorhombic perovskite-like isostructural compounds RCrO3 (R: Yb, Er, Y and Sm) was carried out (R cations ...with and without a magnetic moment and different cation size). Two scales of values can be observed at the Cr3+ and R3+ ordering temperatures. A higher magnetocaloric effect near the rare earth ion ordering temperature with values ranging from −ΔSM(TNCr) = 0.15 to 0.72 and a lower one at the Cr ordering temperature ranging from −ΔSM(TNR) = -0.2 to 12.5. A normal and an inverse magnetocaloric effect were observed in the low temperature regime for the case of Sm at and above the spin reorientation of the Cr ions. The evolution of −ΔSM with R3+ ion radius increase and with total paramagnetic system moment are also discussed.
•RCrO3 may be exploited for magnetic refrigeration applications.•Large increase of TNCr with increasing rare-earth ionic radius enables future solid solutions for MCE cascade cooling cycle.•Magnetic entropy evolution near TNCr tunable by changing the magnetic R ion•Magnetic anisotropy and exchange-striction mechanisms dictate RCrO3 system properties.•ErCrO3 coercive field perceived around TNCr hints for peculiar magnetic correlations in this compound.
Objectives This study was designed to assess the clinical course and to identify risk factors for life-threatening events in patients with long-QT syndrome (LQTS) with normal corrected QT (QTc) ...intervals. Background Current data regarding the outcome of patients with concealed LQTS are limited. Methods Clinical and genetic risk factors for aborted cardiac arrest (ACA) or sudden cardiac death (SCD) from birth through age 40 years were examined in 3,386 genotyped subjects from 7 multinational LQTS registries, categorized as LQTS with normal-range QTc (≤440 ms n = 469), LQTS with prolonged QTc interval (>440 ms n = 1,392), and unaffected family members (genotyped negative with ≤440 ms n = 1,525). Results The cumulative probability of ACA or SCD in patients with LQTS with normal-range QTc intervals (4%) was significantly lower than in those with prolonged QTc intervals (15%) (p < 0.001) but higher than in unaffected family members (0.4%) (p < 0.001). Risk factors ACA or SCD in patients with normal-range QTc intervals included mutation characteristics (transmembrane-missense vs. nontransmembrane or nonmissense mutations: hazard ratio: 6.32; p = 0.006) and the LQTS genotypes (LQTS type 1:LQTS type 2, hazard ratio: 9.88; p = 0.03; LQTS type 3:LQTS type 2, hazard ratio: 8.04; p = 0.07), whereas clinical factors, including sex and QTc duration, were associated with a significant increase in the risk for ACA or SCD only in patients with prolonged QTc intervals (female age >13 years, hazard ratio: 1.90; p = 0.002; QTc duration, 8% risk increase per 10-ms increment; p = 0.002). Conclusions Genotype-confirmed patients with concealed LQTS make up about 25% of the at-risk LQTS population. Genetic data, including information regarding mutation characteristics and the LQTS genotype, identify increased risk for ACA or SCD in this overall lower risk LQTS subgroup.
Abstract
We studied 2351 participants with coronavirus disease 2019; 1177 (50%) reported previous dengue infection. Those without previous dengue had a higher risk of death (hazard ratio: .44; 95% ...confidence interval: .22–.89; P = .023) in 60-day follow-up. These findings raise the possibility that dengue might induce immunological protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
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