Various dietary supplements are claimed to have cutaneous anti-aging properties; however, there are a limited number of research studies supporting these claims. The objective of this research was to ...study the effectiveness of collagen hydrolysate (CH) composed of specific collagen peptides on skin biophysical parameters related to cutaneous aging. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 69 women aged 35-55 years were randomized to receive 2.5 g or 5.0 g of CH or placebo once daily for 8 weeks, with 23 subjects being allocated to each treatment group. Skin elasticity, skin moisture, transepidermal water loss and skin roughness were objectively measured before the first oral product application (t0) and after 4 (t1) and 8 weeks (t2) of regular intake. Skin elasticity (primary interest) was also assessed at follow-up 4 weeks after the last intake of CH (t3, 4-week regression phase). At the end of the study, skin elasticity in both CH dosage groups showed a statistically significant improvement in comparison to placebo. After 4 weeks of follow-up treatment, a statistically significantly higher skin elasticity level was determined in elderly women. With regard to skin moisture and skin evaporation, a positive influence of CH treatment could be observed in a subgroup analysis, but data failed to reach a level of statistical significance. No side effects were noted throughout the study.
Dietary consumption of food supplements has been found to modulate skin functions and can therefore be useful in the treatment of skin aging. However, there is only a limited number of clinical ...studies supporting these claims. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effectiveness of the specific bioactive collagen peptide (BCP) VERISOL® on eye wrinkle formation and stimulation of procollagen I, elastin and fibrillin biosynthesis in the skin was assessed. A hundred and fourteen women aged 45-65 years were randomized to receive 2.5 g of BCP or placebo, once daily for 8 weeks, with 57 subjects being allocated to each treatment group. Skin wrinkles were objectively measured in all subjects, before starting the treatment, after 4 and 8 weeks as well as 4 weeks after the last intake (4-week regression phase). A subgroup was established for suction blister biopsies analyzing procollagen I, elastin and fibrillin at the beginning of the treatment and after 8 weeks of intake. The ingestion of the specific BCP used in this study promoted a statistically significant reduction of eye wrinkle volume (p < 0.05) in comparison to the placebo group after 4 and 8 weeks (20%) of intake. Moreover a positive long-lasting effect was observed 4 weeks after the last BCP administration (p < 0.05). Additionally, after 8 weeks of intake a statistically significantly higher content of procollagen type I (65%) and elastin (18%) in the BCP-treated volunteers compared to the placebo-treated patients was detected. For fibrillin, a 6% increase could be determined after BCP treatment compared to the placebo, but this effect failed to reach the level of statistical significance. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the oral intake of specific bioactive collagen peptides (Verisol®) reduced skin wrinkles and had positive effects on dermal matrix synthesis.
Summary
The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of specific bioactive collagen peptides (BCP), here administered orally as PETAGILE®, on horses with mild to moderate, naturally ...occurring osteoarthritis. Data from a two‐centred pilot study were used for the meta‐analysis.
Thirty‐eight privately owned horses of various breeds were available. In one centre, 18 of these patients (6 ± 3 years; 519 ± 100 kg BW) received either 25 g (n = 6) or 50 g (n = 12) BCP/day orally for 12 weeks. In the second centre, 20 horses (18 ± 4 years; 413 ± 94 kg BW) received either a placebo (control; n = 10) or 25 g BCP/day. The attending veterinarians performed an orthopaedic examination including flexion tests and evaluated the degree of lameness, rotation pain, step length and arc of foot flight during trot (8 parameters) at the beginning and after 6 and 12 weeks. The horse owners answered a weekly questionnaire about their perception of lameness, mobility and the horses’ willingness to run. In the 50 g BCP group, in six of eight parameters, a strong effect (Cohen's r > .5) was detected with two parameters (lameness and flexion pain) significantly improved already after 6 weeks. In the 25 g BCP group, a moderate effect (Cohen's r = .3–0.5) was seen in six parameters, with three parameters improved already after 6 weeks. The owners reported a strong effect for mobility and willingness to run (Cohen's r = .69 and .62, respectively) and a moderate effect (Cohen's r = .49 and 0.41) for the development of lameness in the 50 g and 25 g BCP group in comparison with the placebo treatment. This study revealed promising effects of the safe oral‐specific BCP supplementation on symptoms of osteoarthritis in horses already after 3 months. The higher dosage of 50 g BCP/day had superior impact. Further long‐term investigations on specific BCP efficacy in horses with osteoarthritis, preferably in blinded and placebo‐controlled studies, should be performed to confirm these first positive results.
Design and performance of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup Abdou, Y.; Becker, K.-H.; Berdermann, J. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
08/2012, Letnik:
683
Journal Article
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The South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) was built to evaluate the acoustic characteristics of the South Pole ice in the 10–100kHz frequency range, for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of ...an acoustic neutrino detection array at the South Pole. The SPATS hardware consists of four vertical strings deployed in the upper 500m of the South Pole ice cap. The strings form a trapezoidal array with a maximum baseline of 543m. Each string has seven stages equipped with one transmitter and one sensor module (glaciophone). Sound is detected or generated by piezoelectric ceramic elements inside the modules. Analogue signals are sent to the surface on electric cables where they are digitized by a PC-based data acquisition system. The data from all strings are collected on a central computer in the IceCube Laboratory from where they are sent to a central data storage facility via a satellite link or stored locally on tape. A technical overview of SPATS and its performance is presented.
We investigate the effects of stochastic density fluctuations on the dust temperatures and the resulting infrared (IR) emission spectra of interstellar clouds as an extension of preceding ...investigations by Hegmann & Kegel. We consider absorption and scattering by dust grains in spherical clouds which are, on average, homogeneous but have a fluctuating density. The spatial variation of the density is described by means of a Markov process. This clump model introduces two parameters: the correlation length ln and the Gaussian width σn of the density fluctuations. As the intensity Iλ,n inherits the randomness of the density n, the ordinary radiative transfer equation has to be replaced by a generalized transfer equation of Fokker–Planck type. In the first part, we investigate the influence of our model parameters on the radiative transport in the ultraviolet (UV) and use the results to calculate the dust temperature in radiative equilibrium. Afterwards, the IR emission of the dust is modelled for the same set of clump parameters. We find that the presence of clumps decreases the effective extinction and therefore leads to substantial differences in UV illumination and dust temperatures, compared with the homogeneous case. Because of the distribution of dust temperatures, the presence of clumps also affects the IR emission and thus possible observations. In the second part, we use a fit with two blackbody spectra to determine the cloud dust mass from our synthetic IR fluxes. It is shown that in a clumpy environment the overall dust mass is generally underestimated. This effect correlates with the degree of cloud fragmentation.
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