Can Wheat Germ Have a Beneficial Effect on Human Health? A Study Protocol for a Randomised Crossover Controlled Trial to Evaluate its Health Effects

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of mortality worldwide and diet is an important contributor to CVD risk. Thus, several food derivatives are being investigated for their beneficial impact on reducing cardiometabolic risk factors, either in risk groups or in healthy population as a preventive measure. Wheat germ is a food by-product with high nutritional value, especially as a concentrated source of dietary fibre and essential fatty acids, but its incorporation into the diet has been rare up to now. Previous studies do not clarify the hypothesised potential causal relationship between the consumption of wheat germ and benefits for human health. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We are conducting a randomised, double-blinded, crossover, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to assess the physiological effects of daily consumption of wheat germ-enriched bread (containing 6 g of wheat germ) compared with non-enriched bread, over a 4-week period with a 15-week follow-up, in a healthy human population. A total of 55 participants (healthy volunteers, aged 18-60) have been recruited from the Porto metropolitan area in northern Portugal. Our aim is to evaluate the health effects of wheat germ on blood cholesterol and triglycerides, postprandial glycaemic response, gastrointestinal function and discomfort, and changes in intestinal microbiota and insulin resistance as secondary outcomes. The study follows the best practices for evaluating health claims in food according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientific opinion, namely random allocation, double blinding, reporting methods to measure and maximise compliance, and validated outcomes with beneficial physiological effects as recommended by EFSA. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Health Ethics Committee of São João Hospital Centre (156-15) and the Ethics Committee of Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (PCEDCSS-FMUP07/2015). Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at international scientific meetings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modeling competences in enterprise architecture:from knowledge, skills, and attitudes to organizational capabilities

Competence-based approaches have received increased attention, as the demand for qualified people with the right combination of competences establishes itself as a major factor of organizational performance. This paper examines how competences can be incorporated into Enterprise Architecture modeling: (i) we identify a key set of competence-related concepts such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes, (ii) analyze and relate them using a reference ontology (grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology), and (iii) propose a representation strategy for modeling competences and their constituent elements leveraging the ArchiMate language, discussing how the proposed models can fit in enterprise competence-based practices. Our approach is intended to cover two tasks relevant to the combined application of Enterprise Architecture and Competence Modeling: ‘zooming in’ on competences, revealing the relations between competences, knowledge, skills, attitudes and other personal characteristics that matter in organizational performance, and ‘zooming out’ of competences, placing them in the wider context of other personal competences and overall organizational capabilities. An assessment of the representation is offered in the form of an empirical survey.</p

Exploring system behavior in a system ontology

Understanding and modeling system behavior is a key aspect of many disciplines, and is crucial when systems are designed to manifest desirable behaviors. In order to grasp system behavior, it is inevitable to address how it emerges from the properties and behaviors of interrelated system components. In pursuit of an understanding of the emergence phenomenon and to account for the nature of emergent system behavior, this paper takes a first step in extending a system core ontology with behavioral aspects. The ontology extension is grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology and also in system science definitions and disposition theories.</p

A 1.4 deg^2 blind survey for C II], C III] and C IV at z ~ 0.7-1.5 - II. Luminosity functions and cosmic average line ratios

Article / Letter to editorSterrewach

Modeling Competence Framework Elements with an Ontology-based Approach

Organizations are required to pay constant attention to human resource development in order to prosper. Competence frameworks have received increased attention in this context, as the availability of qualified people with the right combination of competences establishes itself as a major issue for organizational performance. This paper investigates the modeling of competence frameworks in Enterprise Architecture: (i) we identify a key set of competence-related concepts found in competence frameworks; (ii) analyze them using the Unified Foundational Ontology to build a reference Competence Ontology, and, then; (iii) propose well-founded representation patterns for competence modeling in the ArchiMate EA language, discussing how these patterns can be embedded in enterprise competence-based practices.</p

The growth of typical star-forming galaxies and their supermassive black holes across cosmic time since z~2

Understanding galaxy formation and evolution requires studying the interplay between the growth of galaxies and the growth of their black holes across cosmic time. Here, we explore a sample of Hα-selected star-forming galaxies from the High Redshift Emission Line Survey and use the wealth of multiwavelength data in the Cosmic Evolution Survey field (X-rays, far-infrared and radio) to study the relative growth rates between typical galaxies and their central supermassive black holes, from z = 2.23 to z = 0. Typical star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1–2 have black hole accretion rates (M˙BHM˙BH) of 0.001–0.01 M⊙ yr−1 and star formation rates (SFRs) of ∼10–40 M⊙ yr−1, and thus grow their stellar mass much quicker than their black hole mass (3.3±0.2 orders of magnitude faster). However, ∼3 per cent of the sample (the sources detected directly in the X-rays) show a significantly quicker growth of the black hole mass (up to 1.5 orders of magnitude quicker growth than the typical sources). M˙BHM˙BH falls from z = 2.23 to z = 0, with the decline resembling that of SFR density or the typical SFR (SFR*). We find that the average black hole to galaxy growth (M˙BHM˙BH/SFR) is approximately constant for star-forming galaxies in the last 11 Gyr. The relatively constant M˙BHM˙BH/SFR suggests that these two quantities evolve equivalently through cosmic time and with practically no delay between the two

Does intake of bread supplemented with wheat germ have a preventive role on cardiovascular disease risk markers in healthy volunteers? A randomised, controlled, crossover trial

Objective Intake of whole grains is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This evidence is also strong for bran alone, but findings about germ are conflicting. Our aim was to elucidate the role of germ in primary prevention of cardiovascular events, and therefore, a staple food was selected for 6g of germ supplementation. This corresponds to sixfold increase in the global mean consumption of germ, while preserving the sensory proprieties of refined bread which is crucial for consumers acceptance. Design Randomised, double-blinded, crossover, controlled clinical trial with 15-week follow-up comprising a 2-week run-in, two intervention periods of 4weeks each and a 5-week washout period. Setting A single centre in the north of Portugal. Participants 55 eligible healthy adults (mean age of 34 years and body mass index between 19 and 38kg/m2) were randomly assigned. Interventions The study consisted of two intervention periods including daily intake of refined wheat bread enriched with 6g of wheat germ and control (non-enriched bread). Outcomes Changes in fasting cholesterol and triglycerides, fasting and postprandial glucose, insulin sensitivity and C reactive protein. Results We observed no significant effect of daily intake of wheat germ on cholesterol and triglycerides levels, on postprandial glucose response and on insulin sensitivity. Incremental area under curve glucose and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance did not change, suggesting that 6g of wheat germ have no effect on glucose metabolism. No effect was also observed in the subgroup of participants who complied with the protocol (n=47). Conclusions The absence of alterations on lipid and glucose profiles suggests that germ up to 6g/day may have no preventive effect on CVD risk. However, it is important to investigate other food vehicles that can accommodate higher doses of wheat germ in future studies.This work was supported by the Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização–COMPETE2020 and by National Funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia-FCT (through the operations FCOMP-01-0202-FEDER-038861 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007746).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Discovery of faint double-peak Halpha emission in the halo of low redshift galaxies

Aiming at the detection of cosmological gas being accreted onto galaxies of the local Universe, we examined the Halpha emission in the halo of 164 galaxies in the field of view of the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer Wide survey (\musew ) with observable Halpha (redshift < 0.42). An exhaustive screening of the corresponding Halpha images led us to select 118 reliable Halpha emitting gas clouds. The signals are faint, with a surface brightness of 10**(-17.3 pm 0.3) erg/s/cm2/arcsec2. Through statistical tests and other arguments, we ruled out that they are created by instrumental artifacts, telluric line residuals, or high redshift interlopers. Around 38% of the time, the Halpha line profile shows a double peak with the drop in intensity at the rest-frame of the central galaxy, and with a typical peak-to-peak separation of the order of pm 200 km/s. Most line emission clumps are spatially unresolved. The mass of emitting gas is estimated to be between one and 10**(-3) times the stellar mass of the central galaxy. The signals are not isotropically distributed; their azimuth tends to be aligned with the major axis of the corresponding galaxy. The distances to the central galaxies are not random either. The counts drop at a distance > 50 galaxy radii, which roughly corresponds to the virial radius of the central galaxy. We explore several physical scenarios to explain this Halpha emission, among which accretion disks around rogue intermediate mass black holes fit the observations best.Comment: pay attention to the last sentence of the abstract! Accepted for publication in Ap