Ajo selenizado: ¿un alimento funcional futuro o actual?

In the last years, functional foods have awakened consumer, scientific and business interest. A commonly found vegetable in such kind of foods includes garlic (Allium sativum). By its ability for selenium (Se) bio-accumulation, garlic can turn into an attractive option of selenized food. Selenium is an essential micronutrient for many organisms including plants, animals, and humans. It is an important trace element due to its antioxidant properties and plays a main role in prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in the study of Se speciation due to the different roles that each species manifests in toxicological and nutrition fields. However, Se exhibits a narrow interval between toxicity and essentiality, which is puzzling toxicologists and alarming nutritionists and legislators. In the present review, an overview on the development of selenized garlic studies and its potential implementation in Argentine production is exposed. The development of novel foods with added value such us selenized garlic could be an attractive alternative for local market. Moreover, it becomes a good offering for factory owners, considering that Mendoza represents about 85% of total garlic production in the country.En los últimos años, los alimentos funcionales han despertado el interés de consumidores, científicos y empresarios. El ajo (Allium sativum) puede ser un ejemplo de ello. Gracias a su capacidad de bioacumular selenio (Se), dicha hortaliza puede convertirse en una atractiva opción de alimento enriquecido con Se. El Se es un micronutriente esencial para numerosos organismos, incluyendo plantas, animales y humanos. Este micronutriente es de gran importancia debido a sus propiedades antioxidantes, y actúa, en consecuencia, como protector de numerosas enfermedades, tales como cáncer y problemas cardiovasculares. Actualmente, existe un mayor interés en el estudio de especiación de Se debido a los distintos roles que cada especie manifiesta en los campos nutricionales y toxicológicos. Sin embargo, las concentraciones de Se poseen un estrecho intervalo entre toxicidad y esencialidad, desconcertando a toxicólogos y alarmando a nutricionistas y legisladores. En este trabajo, se presenta un panorama del grado de avance sobre el estudio de fortificación de ajo con Se y sus perspectivas de aplicación en el sistema productivo de la República Argentina. Este tipo de producción, con un significativo valor agregado, representa una atractiva oportunidad de mercado para la provincia de Mendoza, considerando además que la misma posee cerca del 85% de la producción nacional.Fil: Escudero, Leticia B.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasFil: Monasterio, Romina P.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasFil: Lipinski, Víctor M.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (Argentina)Fil: Filippini, María Flavia. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ingeniería AgrícolaFil: Wuilloud, Rodolfo Germán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnica

Silicon detector results from the first five-tower run of CDMS II

We report results of a search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with the Si detectors of the CDMS II experiment. This report describes a blind analysis of the first data taken with CDMS II’s full complement of detectors in 2006–2007; results from this exposure using the Ge detectors have already been presented. We observed no candidate WIMP-scattering events in an exposure of 55.9 kg-days before analysis cuts, with an expected background of ∼1.1 events. The exposure of this analysis is equivalent to 10.3 kg-days over a recoil energy range of 7–100 keV for an ideal Si detector and a WIMP mass of 10  GeV/c^2. These data set an upper limit of 1.7×10^(-41)  cm^2 on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of a 10  GeV/c^2 WIMP. These data exclude parameter space for spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering that is relevant to recent searches for low-mass WIMPs

BICEP3 performance overview and planned Keck Array upgrade

Bicep3 is a 520mm aperture, compact two-lens refractor designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz. Its focal plane consists of modularized tiles of antenna-coupled transition edge sensors (TESs), similar to those used in Bicep2 and the Keck Array. The increased per-receiver optical throughput compared to Bicep2/Keck Array, due to both its faster f=1:7 optics and the larger aperture, more than doubles the combined mapping speed of the Bicep/Keck program. The Bicep3 receiver was recently upgraded to a full complement of 20 tiles of detectors (2560 TESs) and is now beginning its second year of observation (and first science season) at the South Pole. We report on its current performance and observing plans. Given its high per-receiver throughput while maintaining the advantages of a compact design, Bicep3- class receivers are ideally suited as building blocks for a 3rd-generation CMB experiment, consisting of multiple receivers spanning 35 GHz to 270 GHz with total detector count in the tens of thousands. We present plans for such an array, the new "BICEP Array" that will replace the Keck Array at the South Pole, including design optimization, frequency coverage, and deployment/observing strategies

Analysis of the low-energy electron-recoil spectrum of the CDMS experiment

We report on the analysis of the low-energy electron-recoil spectrum from the CDMS II experiment using data with an exposure of 443.2 kg-days. The analysis provides details on the observed counting rate and possible background sources in the energy range of 2 - 8.5 keV. We find no significant excess in the counting rate above background, and compare this observation to the recent DAMA results. In the framework of a conversion of a dark matter particle into electromagnetic energy, our 90% confidence level upper limit of 0.246 events/kg/day at 3.15 keV is lower than the total rate above background observed by DAMA by 8.9$\sigma$. In absence of any specific particle physics model to provide the scaling in cross section between NaI and Ge, we assume a Z^2 scaling. With this assumption the observed rate in DAMA differs from the upper limit in CDMS by 6.8$\sigma$. Under the conservative assumption that the modulation amplitude is 6% of the total rate we obtain upper limits on the modulation amplitude a factor of ~2 less than observed by DAMA, constraining some possible interpretations of this modulation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure