Sacha inchi oil (Plukenetia volubilis) stabilized with antioxidants for addition in fresh cheese

Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) is a nut that has been grown in the Amazon Rainforest and the high Andes Mountains of Peru for countless centuries. The oil of this nut, natural source of omega 3, 6 and 9, has been recognized by its high antioxidant capacity in humans. In this work, oil from Sacha Inchi was fortified with two commercial antioxidants (Ecoprol 2020 and tocopherol) in order to prepare a fresh cheese from cow's milk. The antioxidant capacities of Sacha Inchi and commercial antioxidants were used as preservatives with the purpose to increase the shelf-life of fresh cheese besides nutritional content. The factorial method was necessary to prepare seven formulations in order to find the optimal concentration of the antioxidants added to Sacha Inchi oil andthe addition of this oil to the fresh cheese. A sensory analysis was performed to choose the best formulation. The results showed that an oil formulation (F4) with tocopherol (150 mg/kg of oil) and Ecoprol 2020 (1000 mg/kg of oil) displayed the lowest peroxide values (PI: 2.6 ± 0.1 meq O2/kg of oil, p < 0.001) and it was able to reduce approximately 50% of fatty acid oxidation in Sacha Inchi oil in relation to the PI control. Then, F4 was used to elaborate further nine formulations (F’1 – F’9), enriched with Sacha Inchi oil (1 to 4%) to prepare the fresh cheese. Microbiological analysis for all formulations were performed (limits of mold, yeasts, coliforms, salmonella, and  bacteria) in order to meet the legal requirements of health and safety in Peru. The cheese taste acceptability was determined through the sensorial evaluation, which reached 7.2 according to the 9- hedonic scale for F'5. Thus, an optimum fresh cheese was obtained from the formulation (F’5) with 22.5g/L of salt and 2.5% of Sacha Inchi oil enriched with 150 mg/kg of tocopherol and 1000 mg/kg of Ecoprol 2020. The cheese shelf-life was also evaluated, increasing it up from 7 days to 16 days in refrigeration. Key words: cheese, antioxidant, Sacha Inchi, shelf-life, Ecoprol 2020, tocophero

Classes of exact wavefunctions for general time-dependent Dirac Hamiltonians in 1+1 dimensions

In this work we construct two classes of exact solutions for the most general time-dependent Dirac Hamiltonian in 1+1 dimensions. Some problems regarding to some formal solutions in the literature are discussed. Finally the existence of a generalized Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant connected with such solutions is discussed

Mitochondrial genome sequencing of marine leukaemias reveals cancer contagion between clam species in the Seas of Southern Europe

Clonally transmissible cancers are tumour lineages that are transmitted between individuals via the transfer of living cancer cells. In marine bivalves, leukaemia-like transmissible cancers, called hemic neoplasia (HN), have demonstrated the ability to infect individuals from different species. We performed whole-genome sequencing in eight warty venus clams that were diagnosed with HN, from two sampling points located more than 1000 nautical miles away in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea Coasts of Spain. Mitochondrial genome sequencing analysis from neoplastic animals revealed the coexistence of haplotypes from two different clam species. Phylogenies estimated from mitochondrial and nuclear markers confirmed this leukaemia originated in striped venus clams and later transmitted to clams of the species warty venus, in which it survives as a contagious cancer. The analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences supports all studied tumours belong to a single neoplastic lineage that spreads in the Seas of Southern Europe.Postprin

Cations extraction of sandy-clay soils from Cavado valley, Portugal, using sodium salts solutions

Cases of contamination by metals in the water wells of the Cavado Valley in north-west Portugal can be attributed to the heavy leaching of clay soils due to an excess of nitrogen resulting from the intensive use of fertilisers in agricultural areas. This work focuses on the natural weathering characteristics of soils, particularly the clay material, through the study of samples collected near the River Cavado. Samples taken from various sites, after physico-chemical characterisation, were subjected to clay dissolution tests, using sodium salts of different ionic forces, to detect the relationship between certain physico-chemical parameters of water, such as pH, nitrate, chloride and sulphate content, in the dissolution of clay and the subsequent extraction of such cations as Al, Fe and K. In acidic sandy clay soils, the mineralogical composition of which was characterised by a predominance of quartz, micas, kaolinite and K-feldspars, decreases of the clay material/water pH ratio increases dissolution of the micaceous and K-feldspars phases. The presence of nitrates in the aqueous solution apparently advanced the extraction of all three cations Al, Fe and K. The specific surface area of the clay material showed a significant correlation with the main kinetic parameters of cation extraction.Têm ocorrido casos de contaminações de águas de poços, por metais, no vale do Rio Cávado, região noroeste de Portugal. A princípio, poderiam ser explicáveis pela elevada lixiviação dos solos arenoargilosos da região, quando da prática de adubações intensivas de nitrogênio em áreas agrícolas. Assim, estudaram-se as características do intemperismo natural dos solos, particularmente da fração argila, característica da margem norte do rio Cávado. Coletaram-se amostras de vários locais, que foram submetidas, após caracterização físico-química, a ensaios de dissolução a partir de soluções de sais de sódio com diferentes forças iônicas. O objetivo foi observar as relações de determinados parâmetros físico-químicos da água, tais como: pH, nitratos, cloretos e sulfatos na dissolução das argilas e a conseqüente extração de espécies químicas tais como Al, K e Fe. Para solos areno-argilosos, ácidos, cuja composição mineralógica se caracteriza por um predomínio de quartzo, micas, caulinita e feldspato-K, o abaixamento do pH da suspensão solo/água promove a solubilização das fases micáceas e feldspáticas. A presença do nitrato nas soluções aquosas promoveu aparentemente a extração de todos os três cátions: Al, K e Fe. O efeito da área superfícial específica das partículas dos solos condicionou fortemente vários dos parâmetros cinéticos estudados relativos à extração dos cátions.(undefined

Narrow-width approximation accuracy

A study of general properties of the narrow-width approximation (NWA) with polarization/spin decorrelation is presented. We prove for total rates of arbitrary resonant decay or scattering processes with an on-shell intermediate state decaying via a cubic or quartic vertex that decorrelation effects vanish and the NWA is of order Gamma. Its accuracy is then determined numerically for all resonant 3-body decays involving scalars, spin-1/2 fermions or vector bosons. We specialize the general results to MSSM benchmark scenarios. Significant off-shell corrections can occur - similar in size to QCD corrections. We qualify the configurations in which a combined consideration is advisable. For this purpose, we also investigate process-independent methods to improve the NWA.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; added reference, version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Photoinduced antibacterial activity of the essential oils from Eugenia brasiliensis lam and Piper mosenii C. DC. by blue led light

The objective of this work was to evaluate the phytochemical composition and the antibacterial and antibiotic-modulating activities of the essential oils of Eugenia brasiliensis Lam (OEEb) and Piper mosenii C. DC (OEPm) singly or in association with blue LED (Light-emitting diode) light. The antibacterial and antibiotic-modulatory activities of the essential oils on the activity of aminoglycosides were evaluated to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, \u3bcg/mL) in the presence or absence of exposure to blue LED light. The chemical analysis showed \u3b1-pinene and bicyclogermacrene as major constituents of OEPm, whereas \u3b1-muurolol was the main compound of OEEb. Both OEEb and OEPm showed MIC 65 512 \u3bcg/mL against the strains under study. However, the association of these oils with the blue LED light enhanced the action of the aminoglycosides amikacin and gentamicin. In conclusion, the association of aminoglycosides with the blue LED light and essential oils was effective against resistant bacteria

Sub-femto-g free fall for space-based gravitational wave observatories: LISA pathfinder results

We report the first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment. The results demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density of 5.2 ± 0.1 fm s−2/√Hz or (0.54 ± 0.01) × 10−15 g/√Hz, with g the standard gravity, for frequencies between 0.7 and 20 mHz. This value is lower than the LISA Pathfinder requirement by more than a factor 5 and within a factor 1.25 of the requirement for the LISA mission, and is compatible with Brownian noise from viscous damping due to the residual gas surrounding the test masses. Above 60 mHz the acceleration noise is dominated by interferometer displacement readout noise at a level of (34.8 ± 0.3) fm/√Hz, about 2 orders of magnitude better than requirements. At f ≤ 0.5 mHz we observe a low-frequency tail that stays below 12 fm s−2/√Hz down to 0.1 mHz. This performance would allow for a space-based gravitational wave observatory with a sensitivity close to what was originally foreseen for LISA

Low-mass pre--main-sequence stars in the Magellanic Clouds

[Abridged] The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) suggests that sub-solar stars form in very large numbers. Most attractive places for catching low-mass star formation in the act are young stellar clusters and associations, still (half-)embedded in star-forming regions. The low-mass stars in such regions are still in their pre--main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary phase. The peculiar nature of these objects and the contamination of their samples by the evolved populations of the Galactic disk impose demanding observational techniques for the detection of complete numbers of PMS stars in the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds, the companion galaxies to our own, demonstrate an exceptional star formation activity. The low extinction and stellar field contamination in star-forming regions of these galaxies imply a more efficient detection of low-mass PMS stars than in the Milky Way, but their distance from us make the application of special detection techniques unfeasible. Nonetheless, imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope yield the discovery of solar and sub-solar PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds from photometry alone. Unprecedented numbers of such objects are identified as the low-mass stellar content of their star-forming regions, changing completely our picture of young stellar systems outside the Milky Way, and extending the extragalactic stellar IMF below the persisting threshold of a few solar masses. This review presents the recent developments in the investigation of PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds, with special focus on the limitations by single-epoch photometry that can only be circumvented by the detailed study of the observable behavior of these stars in the color-magnitude diagram. The achieved characterization of the low-mass PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds allowed thus a more comprehensive understanding of the star formation process in our neighboring galaxies.Comment: Review paper, 26 pages (in LaTeX style for Springer journals), 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Review