Clinical trial data have indicated an association between wholegrain consumption and a reduction in surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease. Phenolics present in wholegrain bound to arabinoxylan ...fibre may contribute these effects, particularly when released enzymatically from the fiber prior to ingestion. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine whether the intake of high fibre bread containing higher free ferulic acid (FA) levels (enzymatically released during processing) enhances human endothelium-dependent vascular function.
A randomized, single masked, controlled, crossover, human intervention study was conducted on 19 healthy men. Individuals consumed either a high fibre flatbread with enzymatically released free FA (14.22 mg), an equivalent standard high fibre bread (2.34 mg), or a white bread control (0.48 mg) and markers of vascular function and plasma phenolic acid concentrations were measured at baseline, 2, 5 and 7 h post consumption.
Significantly increased brachial arterial dilation was observed following consumption of the high free FA (‘enzyme-treated’) high fibre bread verses both a white bread (2 h: p < 0.05; 5 h: p < 0.01) and a standard high fibre bread (5 h: p < 0.05). Concurrently, significant increases in plasma FA levels were observed, at 2 h (p < 0.01) after consumption of the enzyme-treated bread, relative to control treatments. Blood pressure, heart rate, DVP-SI and DVP-RI were not significantly altered following intake of any of the breads (p > 0.05).
Dietary intake of bread, processed enzymatically to release FA from arabinoxylan fiber during production increases the bioavailability of FA, and induces acute endothelium-dependent vasodilation.
NCT03946293.
www.clinicaltrials.gov.
1. Primary objectives of national parks usually include both, the protection of natural processes and species conservation. When these objectives conflict, as occurs because of the cascading effects ...of large mammals (i.e., ungulates and large carnivores) on lower trophic levels, park managers have to decide upon the appropriate management while considering various local circumstances.
2. To analyse if ungulate management strategies are in accordance with the objectives defined for protected areas, we assessed the current status of ungulate management across European national parks using the naturalness concept and identified the variables that influence the management.
3. We collected data on ungulate management from 209 European national parks in 29 countries by means of a large-scale questionnaire survey. Ungulate management in the parks was compared by creating two naturalness scores. The first score reflects ungulate and large carnivore species compositions, and the second evaluates human intervention on ungulate populations. We then tested whether the two naturalness score categories are influenced by the management objectives, park size, years since establishment, percentage of government-owned land, and human impact on the environment (human influence index) using two generalized additive mixed models.
4. In 67.9% of the national parks, wildlife is regulated by culling (40.2%) or hunting (10.5%) or both (17.2%). Artificial feeding occurred in 81.3% of the national parks and only 28.5% of the national parks had a non-intervention zone covering at least 75% of the area. Furthermore, ungulate management differed greatly among the different countries, likely because of differences in hunting traditions and cultural and political backgrounds. Ungulate management was also influenced by park size, human impact on the landscape, and national park objectives, but after removing these variables from the full model the reduced models only showed a small change in the deviance explained. In areas with higher anthropogenic pressure, wildlife diversity tended to be lower and a higher number of domesticated species tended to be present. Human intervention (culling and artificial feeding) was lower in smaller national parks and when park objectives followed those set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
5. Our study shows that many European national parks do not fulfil the aims of protected area management as set by IUCN guidelines. In contrast to the USA and Canada, Europe currently has no common ungulate management policy within national parks. This lack of a common policy together with differences in species composition, hunting traditions, and cultural or political context has led to differences in ungulate management among European countries. To fulfil the aims and objectives of national parks and to develop ungulate management strategies further, we highlight the importance of creating a more integrated European ungulate management policy to meet the aims of national parks.
•We used the naturalness score to assess ungulate management in protected areas.•Ungulate management in national parks varied greatly among European countries.•Ungulate management reflects differences in legislation, policy and traditions.•An integrated European ungulate management framework for national parks is needed.
Knowledge mining from synthetic biology journal articles for machine learning (ML) applications is a labor-intensive process. The development of natural language processing (NLP) tools, such as ...GPT-4, can accelerate the extraction of published information related to microbial performance under complex strain engineering and bioreactor conditions. As a proof of concept, we proposed prompt engineering for a GPT-4 workflow pipeline to extract knowledge from 176 publications on two oleaginous yeasts (Yarrowia lipolytica and Rhodosporidium toruloides). After human intervention, the pipeline obtained a total of 2037 data instances. The structured data sets and feature selections enabled ML approaches (e.g., a random forest model) to predict Yarrowia fermentation titers with decent accuracy (R 2 of 0.86 for unseen test data). Via transfer learning, the trained model could assess the production potential of the engineered nonconventional yeast, R. toruloides, for which there are fewer published reports. This work demonstrated the potential of generative artificial intelligence to streamline information extraction from research articles, thereby facilitating fermentation predictions and biomanufacturing development.
Climate, disturbance, vegetation response and their interaction are key factors in predicting the distribution and function of ecosystems across landscapes. A range of factors, operating through ...different pathways, are amplifying the feedbacks in this three‐way interaction.
In the western USA, the relative strength of the influence of climate versus vegetation on fire activity varies spatially, realizing a diversity of fire regimes and fire‐selected species traits under historical conditions of climate–fire–vegetation interactions.
Human intervention, via land use and fire‐exclusion, has homogenized frequent‐fire‐adapted forests in terms of structure and composition. Climate change is reinforcing the homogenization directly via increasing temperatures and drought and indirectly through climate‐driven tree mortality. The net effect will be forming novel climate–fire–vegetation interactions that act to homogenize fire regimes and catalyse large‐scale forest loss.
While long‐term persistence of tree species in a given location may not be possible due to directional change of climate, slowing the rate of wildfire‐driven forest cover loss and maximizing the in‐situ persistence of a diversity of species will allow forest ecosystems to respond more incrementally to changing climate and provide an opportunity for ecosystem reassembly to occur from a large pool of species.
As climate continues to change, management to resist wildfire‐driven forest cover loss may hinge on reducing forest density and creating a higher level of heterogeneity to reach the resistance and resilience exhibited by pre‐fire‐exclusion forests. Management operations should better leverage disturbance while strategically deploying silvicultural treatments to increase managed and prescribed fire.
Further research is needed to improve our capacity for quantifying key mechanisms and system responses involved in the climate–fire–vegetation interactions and predicting how best to allocate resources to manage for functional forests.
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Cetacean strandings often elicit significant media attention and public engagement. However, how human perceptions of such events may influence decision-making during strandings response is poorly ...understood. To address this, we undertook an online questionnaire targeting stranding relevant/interested parties in New Zealand, Aotearoa to understand perceptions around stranding events and response. Participants responded to questions and statements using the 5-point Likert scale to explore human perceptions and expectations of intervention, decision-making, animal welfare and survival prognosis during strandings. Responses were analysed based on level of experience and role at stranding events using descriptive and multivariate statistics. A total of 268 respondents completed the questionnaire; most stated that human intervention is necessary to assist animals during strandings. However, 43% of respondents indicated that they did not know what affect intervention may have on the animals. Notably, participants felt that human intervention was more likely to improve survival (26%) than welfare (19%). Importantly, experienced responders appeared more welfare complacent, prioritising survival for strandings response decision-making. Respondents from the legislative agency responsible for strandings in New Zealand, indicated that public sentiment may take precedence over welfare considerations when considering euthanasia. Our results highlight a disjunct between perceptions of welfare and survival, despite these variables being inextricably linked. This may be cause for concern in highly publicised strandings events where management decisions are more likely influenced by public sentiment. Comprehensive animal assessments that are informed both by animal welfare and survival prognoses are required to ensure the best outcomes for stranded cetaceans.
•268 Respondents were surveyed for their perceptions of whale strandings.•More experienced responders did not believe welfare was sufficiently considered.•Most respondents perceived survival to improve with intervention but not welfare.•Scientists did not believe that survival would improve with intervention.•Legislative agency respondents prioritised human expectations over welfare/survival.
Non‐Alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common form of liver disease and is characterized by fat accumulation in the liver. Hypercaloric diets generally increase hepatic fat ...accumulation, whereas hypocaloric diets decrease liver fat content. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that moderate amounts of unsaturated fatty acids seems to be protective for the development of a fatty liver, while consumption of saturated fatty acids (SFA) appears to predispose toward hepatic steatosis. Recent studies highlight a key role for mitochondrial dysfunction in the development and progression of NAFLD. It is proposed that changes in mitochondrial structure and function are key mechanisms by which SFA lead to the development and progression of NAFLD. In this review, it is described how SFA intake is associated with liver steatosis and decreases the efficiency of the respiratory transport chain. This results in the production of reactive oxygen species and damage to nearby structures, eventually leading to inflammation, apoptosis, and scarring of the liver. Furthermore, studies demonstrating that SFA intake affects the composition of mitochondrial membranes are presented, and this process accelerates the progression of NAFLD. It is likely that events are intertwined and reinforce each other, leading to a constant deterioration in health.
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a key mechanism by which saturated fatty acids (SFA) result in the development and progression of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). SFA increases liver fat, decreases the efficiency of the respiratory transport chain and results in the production of reactive oxygen species and endoplasmatic reticulum stress. SFA also affect the composition of mitochondrial membranes. These processes lead inflammation, apoptosis, and scarring of the liver.
This paper addresses the cooperative control problem of trains with specific consideration of human interventions in unusual situations where hard handovers on control objectives and safety ...constraints may occur. To overcome the effects of such discontinuous factors caused by interventions on the smooth operation of trains and avoid drastic changes in the control input, cooperative control policies with soft-switching are constructed based on novel potential energy functions and weighted functions such that, besides achieving consensus among trains for desired velocities and positions, maintaining prescribed tracking distance, collision avoidance is also guaranteed during the state transition process. Furthermore, adaptive approximation and saturation compensation mechanisms are adopted to cope with parameter uncertainties and input saturation. A rigorous proof is provided to demonstrate the correctness of the proposed results theoretically, and numerical experiments are conducted using real operation data to illustrate the theoretical conclusions.
Streamflow stationarity in a changing world Yang, Yuting; Roderick, Michael L; Yang, Dawen ...
Environmental research letters,
06/2021, Letnik:
16, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
Whether river flows remain stationary is of great concern to hydrologists, water engineers, and society in general, yet is subject to substantial debate. Here we provide the first ...comprehensive assessment of the long-term stationarity of annual streamflow for 11 069 catchments globally. Our observation-based evidence shows that the long-term annual streamflow remains stationary in 79% of catchments with minimal human disturbance, indicating that historical climate change alone has not led to non-stationarity in annual streamflow series in most catchments. In direct contrast, we found streamflow has remained stationary in only 38% of those catchments where substantial human interventions have occurred. These results demonstrate the scale of the human impact on the freshwater system, and highlight the ongoing need for dealing with the impacts of direct human interventions to ensure successful water management into the future.
Abstract
Context
Sustained hyperglycemia triggers chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes. A considerable volume of research has explored the effects of brown seaweed on plasma glucose control, ...but equivocal findings have been reported.
Objective
A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the evidence from human randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of brown seaweed on plasma glucose in healthy, at-risk, and individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Data Sources
MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched for reports published between 2000 and 2020.
Data Extraction
Population, intervention, comparator, outcome, and study design data were extracted.
Data Analysis
Eighteen RCTs met our inclusion criteria. The reported results varied across and between populations. Meta-analyses showed a significant effect, favoring the intervention group for both fasting (mean difference –4.6 95% CI –7.88, –1.33) and postprandial (mean difference –7.1 95% CI –7.4, –6.9) plasma glucose.
Conclusion
Brown seaweed and its extracts show potential for preventing and managing hyperglycemia. Our meta-analysis confirms that brown seaweed positively affects plasma glucose homeostasis, with particularly promising postprandial plasma glucose effects. However, further research is needed because no high-quality RCT was identified. Species-specific and dose–response research is also required.
Systematic Review Registration
PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020187849.
Probiotics constitute an attractive alternative in the battle against microbial infections. Oral administration of certain strains of lactobacilli isolated from human milk has resulted in an ...effective reduction of the bacterial load as well as an improvement of the mastitis-associated symptoms. Nevertheless, little is yet known about the potential molecular mechanisms and specific targets implicated in these effects. Transcriptomic profiling has been used to search for disease-associated and therapy-responsive molecules in different disorders and experimental models. We have applied for the first time a gene expression-based molecular approach to explore for potential targets responsive to intervention with a probiotic in: (i) breast milk somatic cells (
= 17) and (ii) blood leukocytes (
= 19). Women with mastitis ingested a new strain of lactobacilli,
PS2 (3 × capsules per day, each capsule contained ~9.5 log10 CFU) for 21 days. We applied Affymetrix microarrays and Taqman one-step quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) to analyze and compare gene expression changes between samples pre- and post-treatment. Our results substantiate the involvement of inflammatory and cell-growth related pathways and genes in the breast milk somatic cells following the intake of
PS2. Individual analyses of selected genes: (1) supported the upregulation of
and
and the downregulation of
and
in the somatic cells of the patients as potential targets responsive to the probiotic, (2) detected a lack of a relationship between the gene expression responses in the two types of cells, and (3) evidenced a substantial interindividual variability in the gene expression changes in both types of cells. Our study provides an insight into the essentiality of incorporating the study of tissue-specific interindividual molecular responsivity into future clinical intervention trials to further understand the complexity of human gene expression responses to therapy and the potentiality of selecting appropriate responsive targets.
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