Ultrasound biomicroscopy findings of 25 G Transconjuctival sutureless (TSV) and conventional (20G) pars plana sclerotomy in the same patient

BACKGROUND: Transconjunctival Sutureless Vitrectomy (TSV) is a recent advancement in vitreo-retinal surgical techniques involving the use of 25 G instruments through self-sealing sclerotomies. It has been hypothesized that there may be less chance of vitreous and retinal herniation in the scleral wound as compared to conventional sclerotomy incision. However there are no reports on differences in 20 gauge and 25 gauge sclerotomies using ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM). We report herein the differences in sclerotomies undertaken with 20 gauge (G) and 25 gauge instruments in the same patient. CASE PRESENTATION: Ultrasound biomicroscopy of the sclerotomy sites was done in the same patient in whom both 20 G and 25 G sclerotomies had to be constructed during pars plana vitrectomy and the differences were studied. On day 2, we observed a wide gape at the site that had been enlarged using a 20G MVR blade. In contrast, the other two sites made transconjunctivally using the 25G trocar showed only a mild gape. Significant gape continued to persist at the subsequent evaluations on day 7 and day 14 only at the port, which had been enlarged. CONCLUSION: Healing of a 25 G sclerotomy is expectedly quite rapid, with inability to detect the site of sclerotomy in a short duration of 2 weeks post-operatively. This is as opposed to conventional sclerotomies, which might take up to 6–8 weeks post-operatively for complete opposition

Effect of Microwave Frying on Acrylamide Generation, Mass Transfer, Color, and Texture in French Fries

[EN] The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of microwave power on acrylamide generation, as well as moisture and oil fluxes and quality attributes of microwave-fried potatoes. Concretely, 25 g of potato strips, in 250 mL of fresh oil (at room temperature), were subjected to three different microwave powers (315, 430, and 600 W) in a conventional microwave oven. Microwave frying resulted in an acrylamide reduction ranged from 37 to 83% compared to deep-oil frying. Microwave-fried French fries presented lower moisture and higher fat content than deep-oil fried potatoes. Concretely, microwave-fried potatoes presented values of moisture and texture more similar to potato chips than French fries, nonetheless with lower fat levels (less than 20 g/100 g wb) and acrylamide content (lower than 100 ¿g/kg wb) at the reference time. This study presents an alternative way of frying to address the production of healthier potato chips.The authors would like to thank the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the PhD scholarship given to Mariola Sansano Tomas.Sansano, M.; De Los Reyes Cánovas, R.; Andrés Grau, AM.; Heredia Gutiérrez, AB. (2018). Effect of Microwave Frying on Acrylamide Generation, Mass Transfer, Color, and Texture in French Fries. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 11(10):1934-1939. doi:10.1007/s11947-018-2144-zS193419391110AACC. (1995). Approved methods of the American association of cereal chemists (9th ed.). St. Paul: The Association.Adedeji, A. A., Ngadi, M. O., & Raghavan, G. S. V. (2009). Kinetics of mass transfer in microwave precooked and deep-fat fried chicken nuggets. Journal of Food Engineering, 91(1), 146–153.Ahrné, L., Andersson, C.-G., Floberg, P., Rosén, J., & Lingnert, H. (2007). 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Dielectric spectroscopy of osmotic solutions and osmotically dehydrated tomato products. Journal of Food Engineering, 80(4), 1218–1225. 2.Granda, C., & Moreira, R. G. (2005). Kinetics of acrylamide formation during traditional and vacuum frying of potato chips. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 28(5), 478–493.Lizhi, H., Toyoda, K., & Ihara, I. (2008). Dielectric properties of edible oils and fatty acids as a function of frequency, temperature, moisture and composition. Journal of Food Engineering, 88(2), 151–158.Oztop, M. H., Sahin, S., & Sumnu, G. (2007). Optimization of microwave frying of potato slices by using Taguchi technique. Journal of Food Engineering, 79(1), 83–91.Parikh, A., & Takhar, P. S. (2016). Comparison of microwave and conventional frying on quality attributes and fat content of potatoes. Journal of Food Science, 81(11), E2743–E2755.Pedreschi, F., & Moyano, P. (2005). Oil uptake and texture development in fried potato slices. 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Evaluation of metabolomics profiles of grain from maize hybrids derived from near-isogenic GM positive and negative segregant inbreds demonstrates that observed differences cannot be attributed unequivocally to the GM trait

Introduction: Past studies on plant metabolomes have highlighted the influence of growing environments and varietal differences in variation of levels of metabolites yet there remains continued interest in evaluating the effect of genetic modification (GM). Objectives: Here we test the hypothesis that metabolomics differences in grain from maize hybrids derived from a series of GM (NK603, herbicide tolerance) inbreds and corresponding negative segregants can arise from residual genetic variation associated with backcrossing and that the effect of insertion of the GM trait is negligible. Methods: Four NK603-positive and negative segregant inbred males were crossed with two different females (testers). The resultant hybrids, as well as conventional comparator hybrids, were then grown at three replicated field sites in Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska during the 2013 season. Metabolomics data acquisition using gas chromatography–time of flight-mass spectrometry (GC–TOF-MS) allowed the measurement of 367 unique metabolite features in harvested grain, of which 153 were identified with small molecule standards. Multivariate analyses of these data included multi-block principal component analysis and ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis. Univariate analyses of all 153 identified metabolites was conducted based on significance testing (α = 0.05), effect size evaluation (assessing magnitudes of differences), and variance component analysis. Results: Results demonstrated that the largest effects on metabolomic variation were associated with different growing locations and the female tester. They further demonstrated that differences observed between GM and non-GM comparators, even in stringent tests utilizing near-isogenic positive and negative segregants, can simply reflect minor genomic differences associated with conventional back-crossing practices. Conclusion: The effect of GM on metabolomics variation was determined to be negligible and supports that there is no scientific rationale for prioritizing GM as a source of variation.</p

Mechanism-based pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of the dopamine D-2 receptor occupancy of olanzapine in rats

A mechanism-based PK-PD model was developed to predict the time course of dopamine D-2 receptor occupancy (D2RO) in rat striatum following administration of olanzapine, an atypical antipsychotic drug. A population approach was utilized to quantify both the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of olanzapine in rats using the exposure (plasma and brain concentration) and D2RO profile obtained experimentally at various doses (0.01-40 mg/kg) administered by different routes. A two-compartment pharmacokinetic model was used to describe the plasma pharmacokinetic profile. A hybrid physiology- and mechanism-based model was developed to characterize the D-2 receptor binding in the striatum and was fitted sequentially to the data. The parameters were estimated using nonlinear mixed-effects modeling . Plasma, brain concentration profiles and time course of D2RO were well described by the model; validity of the proposed model is supported by good agreement between estimated association and dissociation rate constants and in vitro values from literature. This model includes both receptor binding kinetics and pharmacokinetics as the basis for the prediction of the D2RO in rats. Moreover, this modeling framework can be applied to scale the in vitro and preclinical information to clinical receptor occupancy

Distribution of Hyperpolarized Xenon in the Brain Following Sensory Stimulation: Preliminary MRI Findings

In hyperpolarized xenon magnetic resonance imaging (HP 129Xe MRI), the inhaled spin-1/2 isotope of xenon gas is used to generate the MR signal. Because hyperpolarized xenon is an MR signal source with properties very different from those generated from water-protons, HP 129Xe MRI may yield structural and functional information not detectable by conventional proton-based MRI methods. Here we demonstrate the differential distribution of HP 129Xe in the cerebral cortex of the rat following a pain stimulus evoked in the animal's forepaw. Areas of higher HP 129Xe signal corresponded to those areas previously demonstrated by conventional functional MRI (fMRI) methods as being activated by a forepaw pain stimulus. The percent increase in HP 129Xe signal over baseline was 13–28%, and was detectable with a single set of pre and post stimulus images. Recent innovations in the production of highly polarized 129Xe should make feasible the emergence of HP 129Xe MRI as a viable adjunct method to conventional MRI for the study of brain function and disease