Oral astringency is the dry sensation experienced in the mouth on consumption of plant-based polyphenols (catechins) found in wine and tea as well as certain fruits and vegetables. It is commonly ...explained as arising from the loss of lubricity owing to the precipitation of proteins from the salivary film that coats and lubricates the oral cavity. Here, we investigate this hypothesis directly by probing the impact of astringent compounds on the lubricating properties of saliva. By preadsorbing saliva onto an elastic hydrophobic substrate to form a highly lubricating and robust film under conditions designed to mimic the low pressure rubbing contacts experienced in the oral cavity (Bongaerts, Rossetti, & Stokes, 2007), we probe the interaction of this film on exposure to solutions containing tea catechins. We examine the response of the adsorbed salivary film to polyphenol structure, concentration and temperature, as well as the influence of astringency modulating solutions consisting of a thickener (maltodextrin) and milk.
We find that a significant increase in friction coefficient occurs upon exposure with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) solutions due to a depletion of the lubricating proteins from the elastic substrates. The friction coefficient increases more rapidly with increasing EGCG concentration, this is in line with a corresponding increase in astringency perception. In addition, the inclusion of a hydrocolloid thickener in EGCG solutions caused a decrease in astringency perception probably due to specific EGCG–maltodextrin interaction and to an increase in viscosity, which lowers the friction coefficient between the elastic substrates. These findings show that the physical interaction of saliva proteins with EGCG molecules, which we probe through the loss of saliva lubricity, can be advantageously used to predict the astringent acuity of EGCG using our simple oral mimetic technique, supporting the hypothesis that astringency is related to a loss of lubrication. However, epicatechin (EC) did not alter the lubricating properties of the salivary film, although the EC solutions were perceived to be astringent, an observation which seems to question a simple causal dependence on oral lubrication. In addition to that, milk mitigated the astringency perception of EGCG solutions although considerably reducing saliva lubricity. We conclude that the depletion of saliva lubricating proteins is not necessary to obtain an astringent perception, and that astringency is unlikely to be a purely tactile percept.
We demonstrate the efficient boundary lubricating properties of human whole saliva (HWS) in a soft hydrophobic rubbing contact, consisting of a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) ball and a PDMS disk. The ...influence of applied load, entrainment speed and surface roughness was investigated for mechanically stimulated HWS. Lubrication by HWS results in a boundary friction coefficient of μ ≈ 0.02, two orders of magnitude lower than that obtained for water. Dried saliva on the other hand results in μ ≈ 2–3, illustrating the importance of hydration for efficient salivary lubrication. Increasing the surface roughness increases the friction coefficient for HWS, while it decreases that for water. The boundary lubricating properties of HWS are less sensitive to saliva treatment than are its bulk viscoelastic properties. Centrifugation and ageing of HWS almost completely removes the shear thinning and elastic nature observed for fresh HWS. In contrast, the boundary friction coefficients are hardly affected, which indicates that the high-Mw (supra-)molecular structures in saliva, which are expected to be responsible for its rheology, are not responsible for its boundary lubricating properties. The saliva-coated PDMS surfaces form an ideal model system for ex-vivo investigations into oral lubrication and how the lubricating properties of saliva are influenced by other components like food, beverages, oral care products and pharmaceuticals.
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is advised as a treatment option for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with peritoneal carcinomatosis. This study was designed to define the ...pharmacokinetics of cisplatin (CDDP) and paclitaxel (PTX) administered together during HIPEC.
Thirteen women with EOC underwent cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and HIPEC, with CDDP and PTX. Blood, peritoneal perfusate and tissue samples were harvested to determine drug exposure by high-performance liquid chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization imaging mass spectrometry (IMS).
The mean maximum concentrations of CDDP and PTX in perfusate were, respectively, 24.8±10.4 μg ml(-1) and 69.8±14.3 μg ml(-1); in plasma were 1.87±0.4 μg ml(-1) and 0.055±0.009 μg ml(-1). The mean concentrations of CDDP and PTX in peritoneum at the end of HIPEC were 23.3±8.0 μg g(-1) and 30.1±18.3 μg(-1)g(-1), respectively. The penetration of PTX into the peritoneal wall, determined by IMS, was about 0.5 mm. Grade 3-4 surgical complications were recorded in four patients, five patients presented grade 3 and two patients presented grade 4 hematological complications.
HIPEC with CDDP and PTX after CRS is feasible with acceptable morbidity and has a favorable pharmacokinetic profile: high drug concentrations are achieved in peritoneal tissue with low systemic exposure. Larger studies are needed to demonstrate its efficacy in patients with microscopic postsurgical residual tumours in the peritoneal cavity.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the inefficiency in resource allocation for disaster relief procurement operations. It presents a holistic and reconfigurable procurement ...auctions-based framework which includes the announcement construction, bid construction and bid evaluation phases.Design methodology approach - The holistic framework is developed in a way that auctioneers and bidders compete amongst each other in multiple rounds of the procurement auction. Humanitarian organization in disaster locations are considered as auctioneers (buyers) and suppliers are considered as bidders.Findings - Unique system parameters (e.g. announcement options, priority of items, bidder strategies, etc.) are introduced to represent the disaster relief environment in a practical way. The framework is verified by simulation and optimization techniques using the system characteristics of the disaster relief environment as an input. Based on the parameters and their values, behavioural changes of auctioneers and suppliers are observed.Originality value - Combining the three phases of procurement auctions is unique both in the auction literature and in the disaster relief research, and it helps the humanitarian organizations supply the immediate and long-term requirements in the disaster location more efficiently.
Glacial-aged vegetation dynamics of the Humaitá—Western Brazilian Amazonia were studied by pollen, sedimentary facies, 14C dating, δ13Corg and C/Nmolar. Two sediment cores were taken to a depth of 10 ...and 8m from areas covered by grassland and dense/open forest, respectively. The deposits represent a succession of sediment accumulation in active channel (>42,600cal yr B.P.), abandoned channel/floodplain (>42,600 to ~39,000cal yr B.P.), and oxbow lake sedimentary environments (~39,000cal yr B.P. to modern). The predominance of mud sediments, depletion of δ13Corg and decrease in C/Nmolar values identify the lake establishment. In these settings, low energy subaqueous conditions were developed, locally favoring preservation of a pollen assemblage representing herbaceous vegetation, some modern taxa from Amazonia and cold-adapted plants from the Andes represented by Alnus (2–11%), Hedyosmum (2–17%), Weinmannia (0–18%), Podocarpus (0–4%), Ilex (0–4%) and Drymis (0–1%), at least between >42,600 and <35,200cal yr B.P. The herbs and modern taxa from Amazonia persisted through the Holocene, while the cold pollen assemblage became absent. The co-occurrence of Alnus with other cold adapted plants from the Andes during the late Pleistocene indicates that Alnus probably penetrated the Western Amazonia lowland or was growing closer to the study site due to cooler temperatures during glacial times. The present study presents the first report of a glacial age forest containing Alnus in areas of the Brazilian Amazonian lowlands. In addition to its palaeogeographical importance, this work demonstrates the effectiveness of using a combination of proxies for reconstructing sedimentary environments associated with vegetation.
•Amazon vegetation during the past 42 kyr was studied by pollen, facies, δ13C and C/N•Herbaceous vegetation and glacial forest occurred between 42 and 35 k cal yr BP•First occurrence of glacial forest with Alnus in the Brazilian Amazonian lowlands•The mean temperature in the study site toward the LGM was lower than today.
Various energy-modelling activities are pursued by public authorities, private companies and research institutes with the aim to provide energy forecasts and to assess the impact of energy and ...environmental policies. Nevertheless, no
ex-post evaluations of the results of these modelling activities have been carried out at the European Community level.
This paper investigates and compares the assumptions and the results from a European study carried out in the middle of the eighties with the combination of the so-called
Modèle de prospective de la demande énergétique à long terme (MEDEE) and
Energy flow optimization (EFOM) models with the targeted year of 2000 as presented in the “ENERGY 2000” study. Concretely, assumptions and forecasts are compared with real statistical data. In this way, an evaluation of quantitative tools and model results can be established. The aim of this paper is not to evaluate the quantitative tools themselves but their results and their policy relevance within a frame of 15 years.
This work investigated the evolution of sedimentary environments during the latest Quaternary and their influence on the paradoxical occurrence of open vegetation patches in sharp contact with the ...Amazonian forest. The approach integrated pre-existing geological and floristic data from lowlands in the Brazilian Amazonia, with remote sensing imagery including multispectral optical images (TM, ETM+, and ASTER), Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), InSAR C-band SRTM-DEMs, and high resolution images obtained from Google Earth™. The detection of an abundance of paleomorphologies provided evidence of a scenario in which constant environmental shifts were linked to the evolution of fluvial and megafan depositional systems. In all studied areas, the open vegetation patches are not random, but associated with sedimentary deposits representative of environments either deactivated during the Holocene or presently in the process of deactivation. Sedimentary evolution would have determined the distribution of wetlands and terra firme in many areas of the Amazonian lowlands, and would have a major impact on the development of open vegetated patches within the modern rainforest. Subsiding areas were filled up with megafan deposits, and many fluvial tributaries were rearranged on the landscape. The close relationship between vegetation and the physical environment suggests that sedimentary history related to the evolution of depositional settings during the latest Quaternary played a major role in the distribution of flooded and non-flooded areas of the Amazonian lowlands, with a direct impact on the distribution of modern floristic patterns. As the depositional sites were abandoned and their sedimentary deposits were exposed to the surface, they became sites suitable for vegetation growth, first of herbaceous species and then of forest. Although climate fluctuations might have been involved, fault reactivation appears to have been the main cause of changes in depositional dynamics through time, a process that had an immediate effect on the development of large open vegetation patches intermingled with the Amazonian rainforest.
► Late Quaternary paleomorphologies in Amazonia were examined. ► Remote sensing suggests shifts in fluvial and megafan systems. ► Depositional sites have correspondence with open vegetation/forest contrasts. ► Vegetation contrasts were highly dependent on sedimentary dynamics through time.
Although endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic cancer in developed countries, several aspects of its management are still controversial. In particular, the need to perform ...lymphadenectomy represents an important matter of discussion. Because of the discordant results in the literature, it is still not possible to draft any definitive conclusions regarding the therapeutic value of lymph node dissection. The present review discusses the role of lymphadenectomy in the setting of EC, risk factors for lymphatic spread, identification of patients at risk for lymph node dissemination, and the current evidence for adjuvant therapies in patients with positive nodes. Reasons for the difficulty in demonstrating any therapeutic value of pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy are also discussed.
Spare part provisioning for asset-intensive companies is a complicated problem due to the large number of items, low demand rates, and multi-echelon environment. A primary strategy for reducing the ...size and managing a large number of spare parts is using grouping techniques and data aggregation. In this paper, we address the question of how to reduce the size and complexity of large-scale, two-echelon, service part provisioning systems to benefit both inventory service levels and managerial processes while considering performance trade-offs. This paper contributes a performance-based inventory classification approach for a two-echelon inventory model by developing a novel ranking method. First, it defines the concept of the artificial stocking policy as a new classification criterion in the literature. Then, it adopts a non-subjective weighted linear scoring method for ranking items in the entire network. Finally, it presents a heuristic partitioning method, which is evaluated and compared with complete enumeration and eight alternative clustering and classification methods. The proposed model is implemented and tested in the context of the classic repairable spare part inventory model, called the VARI-METRIC. The results indicate that the proposed method is easy to apply and significantly outperforms the alternatives.
Un chien Border Collie femelle de 4 ans est présenté pour boiterie chronique du membre pelvien. Une douleur dans la région de l’insertion proximale du muscle gastrocnémien droit est mise en évidence. ...Des proliférations irrégulières sur les os sésamoïdes du gastrocnémien ainsi que des minéralisations dans ses tendons d’insertion proximaux sont mis en évidence par examen radiographique du grasset droit. L’examen par imagerie en résonance magnétique (IRM) de cette articulation révèle une lésion inflammatoire active s’étendant du tendon d’insertion proximal latéral jusque dans le chef musculaire latéral du gastrocnémien. Une musculo-tendinopathie de l’insertion proximale du chef latéral du muscle gastrocnémien est diagnostiquée. Un traitement conservateur incluant repos strict pendant 6 semaines et anti-inflammatoire non stéroïdien pendant 4 semaines est instauré, avant reprise progressive d’activité physique. Six mois après le diagnostic, la fonction locomotrice est les capacités physiques de la chienne sont normales.
A 4 years old Border Collie was presented for chronic right pelvic lameness. Pain was elicited at proximal insertion of the gastrocnemius muscle. X-ray examination of the right stifle joint revealed irregular bony proliferative lesions around gastrocnemius sesamoid bones as well as mineralization of proximal tendons of the gastrocnemius. An active inflammatory lesion extending from the proximal lateral tendon to the lateral part of the gastrocnemius muscle was identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A musculo-tendinopathy of the right proximal lateral gastrocnemius was diagnosed. A conservative treatment was set up, including strict rest during 6 weeks and a 4-weeks course of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Then, progressive increase of physical activity was performed. Six months after diagnosis, the dog had normal gait and had regained normal physical performance.
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