Drying Kinetics of Oca (Oxalis Tuberosa)

One of the most important steps for agro-industrial industrialization is examining the kinetic behavior of products, to determine the ideal parameters to maintain their characteristics throughout the production chain. This study experimentally determined the drying kinetics of oca, an indigenous product of the Andean region, because there is no established information on the drying techniques of this tuber. The Andean region is the cradle of a large number of food crops that were domesticated and exploited by indigenous people thousands of years ago, even long before the expansion of the Inca civilization. In Ecuador, oca is perhaps the most important element of the daily diet, and an acceptable level of purity and hygiene has been reached. Oca provides fiber, essential amino acids and a low level of fat. In this study, a temperature of 60ºC was set at the beginning of each experimental run. The weight of the oca slices was measured every 10 min. The experiments were carried out in triplicate. Data were analyzed using StatGraphics software. Two drying periods were observed: the initial period of constant drying speed, where the removal of moisture corresponded to moisture not linked to the oca, while in the second stage, the internal moisture of the tuber was removed. Keywords: kinetic, drying, goose. RESUMEN Uno de los pasos más importantes para la industrialización agroindustrial es el comportamiento cinético de productos, esto en especial para conocer cuáles son los parámetros ideales para mantener las características sensoriales durante toda la cadena de producción. El presente documento determina experimentalmente la cinética de secado para un producto autóctono de la Región Andina, como lo es la oca, puesto que no existe información sobre las técnicas de secado de este tubérculo. En el Ecuador se ha alcanzado un aceptable nivel de pureza e higiene, la Oca es quizás el elemento más importante de la dieta diaria. La región andina es cuna de un gran número de cultivos alimenticios que fueron domesticados y aprovechados por pueblos autóctonos hace miles de años, inclusive mucho antes de la expansión de la civilización Inca. Aporta fibra, aminoácidos esenciales y un nivel bajo en grasa. La experimentación para conocer las curvas que modelan el comportamiento cinético del secado, se llevó a cabo por triplicado; luego de realizar la recolección de datos, estos fueron analizados utilizando el software estadístico StatGraphics. donde se obtuvo el respectivo análisis de varianza y las curvas. En el estudio se configuró una temperatura de 60ºC al inicio de cada corrida experimental, Se midió el peso de las rodajas de Oca cada 10 min, los datos fueron registrados y se procesó las tablas resultantes. En el estudio se pudo observar dos periodos de secado: Periodo inicial de velocidad de secado constante, donde la eliminación de humedad corresponde a la humedad no ligada a la oca, mientras en la segunda etapa se eliminó la humedad interna del tubérculo. Palabras claves: cinética, secado, oca

The Onset of the 1997-1998 El Nino and its Impact on the Phytoplankton Community of the Central Equatorial Pacific

Using physical and bio-optical data from moorings in the central equatorial Pacific, the perturbations to phytoplankton biomass and productivity associated with the onset of the 1997-98 El Nino event were investigated. The data presented depict the physical progression of El Nino onset, from reversal of the trade winds in the western equatorial Pacific, through eastward propagation of equatorially trapped Kelvin waves and advection of waters from the nutrient-poor western equatorial warm pool. The physical perturbations led to fluctuations in phytoplankton biomass, quantum yield of fluorescence and a 50% reduction in primary productivity

Differential Downregulation of E-Cadherin and Desmoglein by Epidermal Growth Factor

Modulation of cell : cell junctions is a key event in cutaneous wound repair. In this study we report that activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor disrupts cell : cell adhesion, but with different kinetics and fates for the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein and for E-cadherin. Downregulation of desmoglein preceded that of E-cadherin in vivo and in an EGF-stimulated in vitro wound reepithelialization model. Dual immunofluorescence staining revealed that neither E-cadherin nor desmoglein-2 internalized with the EGF receptor, or with one another. In response to EGF, desmoglein-2 entered a recycling compartment based on predominant colocalization with the recycling marker Rab11. In contrast, E-cadherin downregulation was accompanied by cleavage of the extracellular domain. A broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor protected E-cadherin but not the desmosomal cadherin, desmoglein-2, from EGF-stimulated disruption. These findings demonstrate that although activation of the EGF receptor regulates adherens junction and desmosomal components, this stimulus downregulates associated cadherins through different mechanisms

Grand unification in the minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model

The simplest minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model is studied in the high energy limit, and some consequences of the grand unification hypothesis are explored assuming that the parity breaking scale is the only relevant energy between the electro-weak scale and the unification point. While the model is shown to be compatible with the observed neutrino phenomenology, the parity breaking scale and the heavy boson masses are predicted to be above 10^7 TeV, quite far from the reach of nowadays experiments. Below that scale only an almost sterile right handed neutrino is allowed with a mass M \approx 100 TeV

Differential Downregulation of E-Cadherin and Desmoglein by Epidermal Growth Factor

Modulation of cell : cell junctions is a key event in cutaneous wound repair. In this study we report that activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor disrupts cell : cell adhesion, but with different kinetics and fates for the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein and for E-cadherin. Downregulation of desmoglein preceded that of E-cadherin in vivo and in an EGF-stimulated in vitro wound reepithelialization model. Dual immunofluorescence staining revealed that neither E-cadherin nor desmoglein-2 internalized with the EGF receptor, or with one another. In response to EGF, desmoglein-2 entered a recycling compartment based on predominant colocalization with the recycling marker Rab11. In contrast, E-cadherin downregulation was accompanied by cleavage of the extracellular domain. A broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor protected E-cadherin but not the desmosomal cadherin, desmoglein-2, from EGF-stimulated disruption. These findings demonstrate that although activation of the EGF receptor regulates adherens junction and desmosomal components, this stimulus downregulates associated cadherins through different mechanisms

Managing active pharmaceutical ingredient raw material variability during twin-screw blend feeding

Continuous powder feeding is a critical step in continuous manufacturing of solid dosage forms, as this unit operation should ensure the mass flow consistency at the desired powder feed rate to guarantee the process throughput and final product consistency. In this study, twin-screw feeding of a pharmaceutical formulation (i.e., blend) existing of a highly dosed very poorly flowing active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) leading to insufficient feeding capacity was investigated. Furthermore, the API showed very high batch-to-batch variability in raw material properties dominating the formulation blend properties. Formulation changes were evaluated to improve the flowability of the blends and to mitigate the impact of API batch-to-batch variability on the twin-screw feeding. Herewith, feeding evaluation tests and an extensive material characterization of the reformulated blends were performed to assess the impact of the formulation changes upon continuous twin-screw feeding. The transfer of the glidant from extra-granular to intra-granular phase allowed to improve the flowability of the blends. A sufficient feeding capacity for the downstream process and a mitigation of the impact of batch-to-batch variability of the API upon twin-screw feeding of the blends could be achieved. No effect of the formulation or of the API properties on the feeding stability was observed. The material characterization of the blends allowed identifying the material attributes which were critical for continuous twin-screw feeding (i.e., bulk density, mass charge and powder cohesiveness)

Elevated Concentrations of Liver Enzymes and Ferritin Identify a New Phenotype of Insulin Resistance: Effect of Weight Loss After Gastric Banding

BACKGROUND: Several studies have associated elevated liver enzymes (LFTs), obesity, and type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and a link has been established between insulin resistance (IR) and elevated ferritin concentrations. We examined the relationship between LFTs, ferritin, and IR in morbid obese subjects and the effect of weight loss after bariatric surgery. METHODS: We measured liver enzymes, ferritin, insulin resistance, and glucose tolerance (by OGTT) in 159 morbid obese subjects (BMI = 44.4 +/- 0.4 kg/m(2)) at baseline, 6 months and 1 year after laparoscopic-adjustable-gastric banding (LAGB). Subjects were divided in two groups: increased LFTs (ALT > 30; AST/ALT < 1) vs. normal LFTs. RESULTS: A large proportion of morbid obese subjects had increased LFTs (44%) which were associated with increased IR and ferritin, suggesting potential liver disease. A majority of the morbidly obese with increased LFTs, IGT, and T2DM, were male and had almost double ferritin concentrations, strongly correlated with ALT (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001). Both ferritin and ALT correlated with waist circumference and IR. One year after, LAGB glucose tolerance improved, LFTs and IR were reduced; ferritin did not change significantly, but was still correlated with IR. CONCLUSIONS: Ferritin may be an additional useful marker for more severe hepatic IR

High-fidelity simulations of CdTe vapor deposition from a new bond-order potential-based molecular dynamics method

CdTe has been a special semiconductor for constructing the lowest-cost solar cells and the CdTe-based Cd1-xZnxTe alloy has been the leading semiconductor for radiation detection applications. The performance currently achieved for the materials, however, is still far below the theoretical expectations. This is because the property-limiting nanoscale defects that are easily formed during the growth of CdTe crystals are difficult to explore in experiments. Here we demonstrate the capability of a bond order potential-based molecular dynamics method for predicting the crystalline growth of CdTe films during vapor deposition simulations. Such a method may begin to enable defects generated during vapor deposition of CdTe crystals to be accurately explored