The role of spray-drying atmosphere on fridericia chica (bonpl.) L.G. Lohmann standardized extract production for wound healing activity

Fridericia chica (Bonpl.) L.G. Lohmann (synonym Arrabidaea chica Verlot) is widely used in Brazilian folk medicine. Considering overcoming pitfalls of scaling up production of plant extracts, herein the effects of N2 atmosphere for extract spray-drying process is reported. Samples were monitored by in vitro antioxidant activity and microbiological evaluation. The drying atmosphere influenced 3-deoxyanthocyanines content when using air as atomizing gas, decreasing carajurin (37.5%) content with concomitant increase in luteolin yield (24.1%). Both drying processes preserved the pharmacological activity. In the cell migration test with HaCaT cells, the extract dried under air flow (5 μg/mL) promoted wound closure by 78% (12 hours) whereas the extract dried using N2 flow promoted 49% (12 hours), with 98% closure (12 hours) for the positive control. The antimicrobial evaluation for Staphylococcus aureus did not differ within drying atmospheres, with MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) at 0.39 mg/mL. Therefore, the drying process reported herein did not interfere with the biological activity’s outcome.The authors A.L.T.G.R.and M.A.F thank CNPq for research productivity fellowship. The authors also thank the Chemical, Biological, and Agricultural Pluridisciplinary Research Center (CPQBA/Unicamp) for the laboratory infrastructure. Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). This work was supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES, Brazil, Financing Code 001) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil, grant numbers # 132448/2016-5, # 132207/2017-6, # 429463/2018-9).Peer reviewe

3 years of liraglutide versus placebo for type 2 diabetes risk reduction and weight management in individuals with prediabetes: a randomised, double-blind trial

Background: Liraglutide 3·0 mg was shown to reduce bodyweight and improve glucose metabolism after the 56-week period of this trial, one of four trials in the SCALE programme. In the 3-year assessment of the SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes trial we aimed to evaluate the proportion of individuals with prediabetes who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Methods: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adults with prediabetes and a body-mass index of at least 30 kg/m2, or at least 27 kg/m2 with comorbidities, were randomised 2:1, using a telephone or web-based system, to once-daily subcutaneous liraglutide 3·0 mg or matched placebo, as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. Time to diabetes onset by 160 weeks was the primary outcome, evaluated in all randomised treated individuals with at least one post-baseline assessment. The trial was conducted at 191 clinical research sites in 27 countries and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01272219. Findings: The study ran between June 1, 2011, and March 2, 2015. We randomly assigned 2254 patients to receive liraglutide (n=1505) or placebo (n=749). 1128 (50%) participants completed the study up to week 160, after withdrawal of 714 (47%) participants in the liraglutide group and 412 (55%) participants in the placebo group. By week 160, 26 (2%) of 1472 individuals in the liraglutide group versus 46 (6%) of 738 in the placebo group were diagnosed with diabetes while on treatment. The mean time from randomisation to diagnosis was 99 (SD 47) weeks for the 26 individuals in the liraglutide group versus 87 (47) weeks for the 46 individuals in the placebo group. Taking the different diagnosis frequencies between the treatment groups into account, the time to onset of diabetes over 160 weeks among all randomised individuals was 2·7 times longer with liraglutide than with placebo (95% CI 1·9 to 3·9, p<0·0001), corresponding with a hazard ratio of 0·21 (95% CI 0·13–0·34). Liraglutide induced greater weight loss than placebo at week 160 (–6·1 [SD 7·3] vs −1·9% [6·3]; estimated treatment difference −4·3%, 95% CI −4·9 to −3·7, p<0·0001). Serious adverse events were reported by 227 (15%) of 1501 randomised treated individuals in the liraglutide group versus 96 (13%) of 747 individuals in the placebo group. Interpretation: In this trial, we provide results for 3 years of treatment, with the limitation that withdrawn individuals were not followed up after discontinuation. Liraglutide 3·0 mg might provide health benefits in terms of reduced risk of diabetes in individuals with obesity and prediabetes. Funding: Novo Nordisk, Denmark

Volume I. Introduction to DUNE

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay—these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. This TDR is intended to justify the technical choices for the far detector that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. Volume I contains an executive summary that introduces the DUNE science program, the far detector and the strategy for its modular designs, and the organization and management of the Project. The remainder of Volume I provides more detail on the science program that drives the choice of detector technologies and on the technologies themselves. It also introduces the designs for the DUNE near detector and the DUNE computing model, for which DUNE is planning design reports. Volume II of this TDR describes DUNE\u27s physics program in detail. Volume III describes the technical coordination required for the far detector design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. Volume IV describes the single-phase far detector technology. A planned Volume V will describe the dual-phase technology

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), far detector technical design report, volume III: DUNE far detector technical coordination

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay—these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. Volume III of this TDR describes how the activities required to design, construct, fabricate, install, and commission the DUNE far detector modules are organized and managed. This volume details the organizational structures that will carry out and/or oversee the planned far detector activities safely, successfully, on time, and on budget. It presents overviews of the facilities, supporting infrastructure, and detectors for context, and it outlines the project-related functions and methodologies used by the DUNE technical coordination organization, focusing on the areas of integration engineering, technical reviews, quality assurance and control, and safety oversight. Because of its more advanced stage of development, functional examples presented in this volume focus primarily on the single-phase (SP) detector module

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 10^3 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype

Avaliação de carcaças de suínos da raça Large White utilizando medidas convencionais Evaluation of Large White pig carcass using conventional measures

Visando estabelecer as medidas que melhor definem a quantidade de tecidos da carcaça de suínos, foram utilizados dados de rendimento de carne (RCARNE), rendimento de gordura (RGORD), rendimento de carcaça (RC), comprimento de carcaça pelo Método Brasileiro de Classificação de Carcaça (CCMB), comprimento de carcaça pelo Método Americano de Classificação de Carcaça (CCMA), espessura média de toucinho (ETM), espessura de toucinho a 4 cm da linha dorsal (P1), espessura de toucinho a 6,5 cm da linha dorsal (P2), espessura de toucinho a 8 cm da linha dorsal (P3), área de olho de lombo (AOL), relação carne:gordura (RCG) e rendimento de pernil (RP), obtidos em 664 suínos Large White. Inicialmente, procurando elucidar qual a importância e possíveis estruturas de relação existentes entre as variáveis, utilizou-se a análise multivariada de agrupamento (cluster analysis) e, em seguida, adotou-se o modelo de regressão linear múltipla, sendo as análises executadas por intermédio do SAS. Numa primeira fase, estimou-se o coeficiente de determinação parcial (Tipo II) de cada variável e, em uma segunda fase, adotou-se o procedimento de seleção de equações ajustadas denominado "Backward". Com exceção do RC, todas as medidas de carcaça avaliadas apresentaram correlação significativa com RCARNE e RGORD. As medidas ETM, P1, P2, P3 e RCG foram inversamente correlacionadas com RCARNE e diretamente correlacionadas com RGORD. Observou-se o contrário para as medidas CCMB, CCMA, AOL e RP. Na avaliação da qualidade da carcaça, para rendimento de carne são suficientes apenas as medidas ETM, AOL, RCG e RP, enquanto, para rendimento de gordura, além destas é necessária a mensuração da P1. As medidas de área de olho de lombo e espessura de toucinho, conforme propostas pelo MBCC mostraram-se como sendo as que melhor avaliam a quantidade de carne e gordura na carcaça.<br>To establish the measures that best define the quality of the carcass of swine, data of lean meat yield (MY), fat yield (FY), dressing percentage (DP), carcass length for the Brazilian Method of Carcass Classification (CLBM), carcass length for the American Method of Carcass Classification (CLAM), average backfat thickness (ABT), backfat thickness 4 cm from the dorsal mid-line (P1), backfat thickness 6.5 cm from the dorsal mid-line (P2), backfat thickness 8 cm from the dorsal mid-line (P3), loin eye area (LEA), lean:fat ratio (LFR) and ham yield (HY) were used, obtained in 664 Large White swine. Initially, in order to make clear the importance and possible relations structures among variables, the cluster analysis was used. Afterwards, the multiple regression linear model was used, using the SAS package. Firstly, it was estimated the partial correlation (Type II) of each trait to evaluate the importance of the quality variables of the carcass. Secondly, a procedure of adjusting equation selection named Backward was used. It was verified that, except for DP, all the measures of carcass classification evaluated presented correlation with MY and FY. The measures ABT, P1, P2, P3 and LFT were inversely correlated with MY and directly correlated with FY. The opposite was observed for the measures CLBM, CLAM, LEA and HY. ABT, AOL, RCG and RP are just enough to evaluate the quality of the carcass in terms of lean meat yield, and, in terms of FY, besides these measured previous it's necessary the evaluation of P1. The measures of loin eye area and average backfat thickness, as proposed by MBCC, shown as being what best evaluates the amount of meat and fat in the carcass