The inclusion of functional foods enriched in fibre, calcium, iodine, fat-soluble vitamins and n-3 fatty acids in a conventional diet improves the nutrient profile according to the Spanish reference intake

Objective The growing interest in maintaining good health status through optimal nutrition has boosted the launch of a number of functional foods on the market. The objective of the present study was to theoretically evaluate the nutritional relevance of incorporating selected enriched foods in the diet. Design A 28 d dietary plan, designed to be balanced under the recommended macronutrients criteria, was used as a basal diet. Some conventional foods were exchanged with foods enriched in fibre, calcium, iodine, vitamins A, D, E or n-3 fatty acids. Setting Nutritional composition of basal and modified diets was derived and compared to the Spanish recommended intakes (RI). Results The basal diet covered the recommendations for fibre and calcium with mean intake of 28 g and 1241 mg, respectively. The current intake of salt, if iodized, or bread elaborated with this salt, allowed reaching the daily intake of iodine every day, with a mean supply of 216 μg/d and 278 μg/d, respectively. The deficient supply of vitamin E in the basal diet (mean = 8 mg/d) was covered by including enriched margarine and dairy products (mean = 15 mg/d). The low n-3 fatty acids intake in the basal diet (1·1 g/d) increased up to 1·9 g/d after the use of enriched margarine, butter and biscuits and soya drink instead of milk. Conclusions In order to improve the accomplishment of the RI iodine, vitamin E and n-3 fatty acids, interesting strategies dealing with the incorporation of enriched foods in the diet were successfully initiated

Dynamic and wear study of an extremely bidisperse magnetorheological fluid

Acceso a la versión publicada en Smart Mater. Struct. 24(12) 127001 (http://iopscience.iop.org/0964-1726/24/12/127001)"This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published in Smart Materials and Structures. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0964-1726/24/12/127001."In this work the friction and wear properties of five magnetorheologicalfluids (MRFs)with varying compositions are investigated. Considering that many of the proposed applications for these fluids involve lubricated contact between mobile metal –metal or polymer– metal parts, the relationship between MR response and wear behavior appears to be of fundamental importance. One of the fluids(MR#1)contains only the iron microparticles and base oil; the second and third ones(MR#2 and MR#3) contain an anti-wear additive as well. The fourth one(MR#4)is a well known commercial MRF. Finally, MR#5 is stabilized by dispersing the iron particles in a magnetite ferrofluid. The MR response of the latter fluid is better(higher yield stress and post-yield viscosity)than that of the others. More importantly, it remains(and even improves)after the wear test: the pressure applied in the four-ball apparatus produces a compaction of the magnetite layer around the iron microparticles. Additionally, the friction coefficient is larger, which seems paradoxical in principle, but can be explained by considering the stability of MR#5 in comparison to the other four MRs, which appear to undergo partial phase separation during the test. In fact, electron and optical microscope observations confirm a milder wear effect of MR#5, with almost complete absence of scars from the steel test spheres and homogeneous and shallow grooves on them. Comparatively, MR#2, MR#3 and, particularly, MR#1 produce a much more significant wear.MINECO Ramón y Cajal Programme (RYC-2014-16901)MINECO FIS 2013-07666-C3-1-RCEI Biotic BS27.2015Junta de Andalucía, PE2012-FQM-069

Molecular Systematic of Three Species of Oithona (Copepoda, Cyclopoida) from the Atlantic Ocean: Comparative Analysis Using 28S rDNA

Species of Oithona (Copepoda, Cyclopoida) are highly abundant, ecologically important, and widely distributed throughout the world oceans. Although there are valid and detailed descriptions of the species, routine species identifications remain challenging due to their small size, subtle morphological diagnostic traits, and the description of geographic forms or varieties. This study examined three species of Oithona (O. similis, O. atlantica and O. nana) occurring in the Argentine sector of the South Atlantic Ocean based on DNA sequence variation of a 575 base-pair region of 28S rDNA, with comparative analysis of these species from other North and South Atlantic regions. DNA sequence variation clearly resolved and discriminated the species, and revealed low levels of intraspecific variation among North and South Atlantic populations of each species. The 28S rDNA region was thus shown to provide an accurate and reliable means of identifying the species throughout the sampled domain. Analysis of 28S rDNA variation for additional species collected throughout the global ocean will be useful to accurately characterize biogeographical distributions of the species and to examine phylogenetic relationships among them

Kinetics of the OH + NO₂ reaction: rate coefficients (217-333 K, 16-1200 mbar) and fall-off parameters for N₂ and O₂ bath gases

The radical terminating, termolecular reaction between OH and NO2 exerts great influence on the NOy∕NOx ratio and O3 formation in the atmosphere. Evaluation panels (IUPAC and NASA) recommend rate coefficients for this reaction that disagree by as much as a factor of 1.6 at low temperature and pressure. In this work, the title reaction was studied by pulsed laser photolysis and laser-induced fluorescence over the pressure range 16–1200 mbar and temperature range 217–333 K in N2 bath gas, with experiments at 295 K (67–333 mbar) for O2. In situ measurement of NO2 using two optical absorption set-ups enabled generation of highly precise, accurate rate coefficients in the fall-off pressure range, appropriate for atmospheric conditions. We found, in agreement with previous work, that O2 bath gas has a lower collision efficiency than N2 with a relative collision efficiency to N2 of 0.74. Using the Troe-type formulation for termolecular reactions we present a new set of parameters with k0(N2) = 2.6×10−30  cm6 molecule−2 s−1, k0(O2) = 2.0×10−30 cm6 molecule−2 s−1, m=3.6, k∞=6.3×10−11 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, and Fc=0.39 and compare our results to previous studies in N2 and O2 bath gases