Scattering of light with angular momentum from an array of particles

Understanding the scattering properties of various media is of critical importance in many applications, from secure high-bandwidth communications to extracting information about biological and mineral particles dissolved in sea water. In this paper we demonstrate how beams carrying orbital angular momentum can be used to detect the presence of symmetric or chiral subsets of particles in disordered media. Using a generalized Mie theory, we calculate analytical expressions for quasimonochromatic structured light scattered by dilute distributions of micro- and nanoparticles. These allow us to determine the angular momentum of the scattered field as a function of the angular momentum of the incident beam and of the spatial distributions of scattering particles. Our numerical results show that we can distinguish structured from random distributions of particles, even when the number density of ordered particles is a few percent of the total istribution. We also find that the signal-to-noise ratio, in the forward direction, is equivalent for all orders of the Laguerre-Gaussian modes in relatively dense (but still dilute) distributions of particles smaller than the beam waist and the Rayleigh range of the beam

Strong chiral optical force for small chiral molecules based on electric-dipole interactions, inspired by the asymmetrical hydrozoan Velella velella\textit{Velella velella}

Drawing inspiration from a remarkable chiral force found in nature, we show that a static electric field combined with an optical lin$\perp$lin polarization standing wave can exert a chiral optical force on a small chiral molecule that is several orders of magnitude stronger than other chiral optical forces proposed to date, being based on leading electric-dipole interactions rather than relying on weak magnetic-dipole and electric-quadrupole interactions. Our chiral optical force applies to most small chiral molecules, including isotopically chiral molecules, and does not require a specific energy-level structure. Potential applications range from chiral molecular matter-wave interferometry for precision metrology and tests of fundamental physics to the resolution of enantiomers for use in chemistry and biology

Functional food awareness and perceptions in relation to information sources in older adults

BACKGROUND: The functional food industry has experienced innovative and economic expansion, yet research into consumer perceptions of functional foods and their associated health claims is limited. Among consumers, older adults could benefit from functional foods due to age-related issues pertaining to food and health. The purpose of this research was to identify the need for information related to functional foods among older adults (≥60 years old) and to assess awareness and perceptions of health claims on functional food packages. METHODS: Community-dwelling older adults (n = 200) completed a researcher administered questionnaire designed to collect information about functional foods including current consumption, motivating factors for consumption, perceived need for information, sources of information for functional foods and awareness of health claims. RESULTS: Prevalence of functional food consumption among participants was 93.0%. Increased awareness and knowledge was the most commonly reported factor that would promote functional food consumption (85.5%) and 63.5% of participants wanted more information about functional foods with preferred sources being newspapers/magazines/books (68.5%) and food labels (66.1%). Participants were predominately (93.5%) aware of health claims on functional foods and those with more education were more likely to report being aware of health claims (p = 0.045). CONCLUSIONS: Although functional food consumption among older adults in this sample is high, there is a need for further information regarding functional foods. These results inform stakeholders regarding the potential for information to influence functional food acceptance among older adult consumers

Bioactive oat β-glucan reduces LDL cholesterol in Caucasians and non-Caucasians

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing global acceptance that viscous soluble fibers lower serum LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), but most evidence for this comes from studies in Caucasians. To see if oat β-glucan lowers LDL-C in Caucasians and non-Caucasians we conducted a post-hoc analysis of the results of a randomized, controlled, double-blind, multi-center clinical trial whose primary aim was to determine if molecular-weight (MW) influenced the LDL-C-lowering effect of oat β-glucan.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Caucasian and non-Caucasian subjects with LDL-C-C ≥ 3.0 and ≤ 5.0 mmol/L (n = 786 screened, n = 400 ineligible, n = 19 refused, n = 367 randomized, n = 345 completed, n = 1 excluded for missing ethnicity) were randomly assigned to consume cereal containing wheat-fiber (Control, n = 74:13 Caucasian:non-Caucasian) or 3 g high-MW (3H, 2,250,000 g/mol, n = 67:19), 4 g medium-MW (4 M, 850,000 g/mol, n = 50:17), 3 g medium-MW (3M, 530,000 g/mol, n = 54:9) or 4 g low-MW (4 L, 210,000 g/mol, n = 51:12) oat β-glucan daily for 4 weeks. LDL-C after 4 weeks was influenced by baseline LDL-C (p < 0.001) and treatment (p = 0.003), but not ethnicity (p = 0.74). In all subjects, compared to control, 3 H, 4 M and 3 M reduced LDL-C significantly by 4.8 to 6.5%, but 4 L had no effect. Compared to control, the bioactive oat β-glucan treatments (3H, 4M and 3M) reduced LDL-C by a combined mean (95% CI) of 0.18 (0.06, 0.31) mmol/L (4.8%, n = 171, p = 0.004) in Caucasians, a value not significantly different from the 0.37 (0.09, 0.65) mmol/L (10.3%, n = 45, p = 0.008) reduction in non-Caucasians.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that oat β-glucan reduces LDL-C in both Caucasians and non-Caucasians; there was insufficient power to determine if the magnitude of LDL-C-lowering differed by ethnicity.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00981981">NCT00981981</a></p

Supporting weight management services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Phase I insights

Societal changes required to manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may have inadvertently promoted weight gain, due to the adverse impact on socio-economics, psychological health, and the resulting metabolic impact of elevated stress, emotional eating and physical inactivity. Evidence on the impact of COVID-19 has rapidly accumulated, to demonstrate that people living with obesity are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. It is therefore important to understand what is happening in terms of weight management practice to develop local and national thinking. This project will explore the impact of the COVID-19 upon the provision of tier 2 and 3 weight management services (WMS) in England during the lockdown period (phase I; March-June 2020); and determine what needs to happen in the future (phase II; September-November 2020). This report documents findings from phase I

Intraspecific variation for host immune activation by the spider mite Tetranychus evansi

Many parasites can interfere with their host’s defences tomaximize their fitness. Here, we investigated if there isheritable variation in the spider miteTetranychus evansifortraits associated with how they interact with their host plant.We also determined if this variation correlates with mitefecundity.Tetranychus evansican interfere with jasmonate (JA)defences which are the main determinant of anti-herbivoreimmunity in plants. We investigated (i) variation in fecundityin the presence and absence of JA defences, making use ofa wild-type tomato cultivar and a JA-deficient mutant(defenseless-1), and (ii) variation in the induction of JAdefences, in fourT. evansifield populations and 59 inbredlines created from an outbred population originating fromcontrolled crosses of the four field populations. We observed astrong positive genetic correlation between fecundity in thepresence (on wild-type) and the absence of JA defences (ondefenseless-1). However, fecundity did not correlate with themagnitude of induced JA defences in wild-type plants. Ourresults suggest that the performance of the specialistT. evansiis not related to their ability to manipulate plant defences,either because all lines can adequately reduce levels ofdefences, or because they are resistant to them.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The effect of whole grain wheat sourdough bread consumption on serum lipids in healthy normoglycemic/normoinsulinemic and hyperglycemic/hyperinsulinemic adults depends on presence of the APOE E3/E3 genotype: a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological studies associate consumption of whole grain foods, including breads, with reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk; however, few studies have compared wheat whole grains with wheat refined grains.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study investigated effects of 6-week consumption of whole grain wheat sourdough bread in comparison to white bread on fasting serum lipids in normoglycemic/normoinsulinemic (NGI; n = 14) and hyperglycemic/hyperinsulinemic (HGI; n = 14) adults. The influence of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, 3 within the <it>APOE </it>gene (E2, E3, E4) and 2 within the hepatic lipase gene promoter (<it>LIPC </it>-514C>T, LIPC -250G>A) were considered.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At baseline, HGI participants had significantly higher body weight, waist circumference, body fat, and fasted glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), glucagon, triacylglycerols (TAG) and TAG:HDL-cholesterol, compared to NGI participants; however, none of these in addition to none of the other serum lipids, differed between bread treatments, within either participant group. For participants with the <it>APOE </it>E3/E3 genotype, LDL-cholesterol (<it>P </it>= 0.02) increased in the NGI group (n = 7), and TAG (<it>P </it>= 0.03) and TAG:HDL-cholesterol (<it>P </it>= 0.04) increased in the HGI group (n = 10), following consumption of whole grain wheat sourdough compared to white bread.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, 6-week consumption of whole grain wheat sourdough bread did not significantly modulate serum lipids in NGI or HGI adults; however, it significantly increased LDL-cholesterol, TAG and TAG:HDL-cholesterol in participants with the <it>APOE </it>E3/E3 genotype. These data add to limited literature comparing wheat whole grains to wheat refined grains on CVD risk and highlight the need to consider genetic variation in relation to lipoprotein lipid content and CVD risk.</p

The C-terminal extension unique to the long isoform of the shelterin component TIN2 enhances its interaction with TRF2 in a phosphorylation- and dyskeratosis congenita-cluster-dependent fashion

TIN2 is central to the shelterin complex, linking the telomeric proteins TRF1 and TRF2 with TPP1/POT1. Mutations in TINF2, which encodes TIN2, that are found in dyskeratosis congenita (DC) result in very short telomeres and cluster in a region shared by the two TIN2 isoforms, TIN2S (short) and TIN2L (long). Here we show that TIN2L, but not TIN2S, is phosphorylated. TRF2 interacts more with TIN2L than TIN2S, and both the DC-cluster and phosphorylation promote this enhanced interaction. The binding of TIN2L, but not TIN2S, is affected by TRF2-F120, which is also required for TRF2's interaction with end processing factors such as Apollo. Conversely, TRF1 interacts more with TIN2S than with TIN2L. A DC-associated mutation further reduces TIN2L-TRF1, but not TIN2S-TRF1, interaction. Cells overexpressing TIN2L or phosphomimetic-TIN2L are permissive to telomere elongation, whereas cells overexpressing TIN2S or phosphodead-TIN2L are not. Telomere lengths are unchanged in cell lines in which TIN2L expression has been eliminated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutation. These results indicate that TIN2 isoforms are biochemically and functionally distinguishable, and that shelterin composition could be fundamentally altered in patients with TINF2 mutations

FOXP2-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphomas exhibit a poor response to R-CHOP therapy and distinct biological signatures.

FOXP2 shares partially overlapping normal tissue expression and functionality with FOXP1; an established diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) oncogene and marker of poor prognosis. FOXP2 is expressed in the plasma cell malignancy multiple myeloma but has not been studied in DLBCL, where a poor prognosis activated B-cell (ABC)-like subtype display partially blocked plasma cell differentiation. FOXP2 protein expression was detected in ABC-DLBCL cell lines, and in primary DLBCL samples tumoral FOXP2 protein expression was detected in both germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) and non-GCB DLBCL. In biopsies from DLBCL patients treated with immunochemotherapy (R-CHOP), ≥ 20% nuclear tumoral FOXP2-positivity (n = 24/158) correlated with significantly inferior overall survival (OS: P = 0.0017) and progression-free survival (PFS: P = 0.0096). This remained significant in multivariate analysis against either the international prognostic index score or the non-GCB DLBCL phenotype (P < 0.05 for both OS and PFS). Expression of BLIMP1, a marker of plasmacytic differentiation that is commonly inactivated in ABC-DLBCL, did not correlate with patient outcome or FOXP2 expression in this series. Increased frequency of FOXP2 expression significantly correlated with FOXP1-positivity (P = 0.0187), and FOXP1 co-immunoprecipitated FOXP2 from ABC-DLBCL cells indicating that these proteins can co-localize in a multi-protein complex. FOXP2-positive DLBCL had reduced expression of HIP1R (P = 0.0348), which is directly repressed by FOXP1, and exhibited distinct patterns of gene expression. Specifically in ABC-DLBCL these were associated with lower expression of immune response and T-cell receptor signaling pathways. Further studies are warranted to investigate the potential functional cooperativity between FOXP1 and FOXP2 in repressing immune responses during the pathogenesis of high-risk DLBCL