Adding a polyphenol-rich fiber bundle to food impacts the gastrointestinal microbiome and metabolome in dogs

IntroductionPet foods fortified with fermentable fibers are often indicated for dogs with gastrointestinal conditions to improve gut health through the production of beneficial post-biotics by the pet's microbiome.MethodsTo evaluate the therapeutic underpinnings of pre-biotic fiber enrichment, we compared the fecal microbiome, the fecal metabolome, and the serum metabolome of 39 adult dogs with well-managed chronic gastroenteritis/enteritis (CGE) and healthy matched controls. The foods tested included a test food (TF1) containing a novel pre-biotic fiber bundle, a control food (CF) lacking the fiber bundle, and a commercially available therapeutic food (TF2) indicated for managing fiber-responsive conditions. In this crossover study, all dogs consumed CF for a 4-week wash-in period, were randomized to either TF1 or TF2 and fed for 4 weeks, were fed CF for a 4-week washout period, and then received the other test food for 4 weeks.ResultsMeaningful differences were not observed between the healthy and CGE dogs in response to the pre-biotic fiber bundle relative to CF. Both TF1 and TF2 improved stool scores compared to CF. TF1-fed dogs showed reduced body weight and fecal ash content compared to either CF or TF2, while stools of TF2-fed dogs showed higher pH and lower moisture content vs. TF1. TF1 consumption also resulted in unique fecal and systemic metabolic signatures compared to CF and TF2. TF1-fed dogs showed suppressed signals of fecal bacterial putrefactive metabolism compared to either CF or TF2 and increased saccharolytic signatures compared to TF2. A functional analysis of fecal tryptophan metabolism indicated reductions in fecal kynurenine and indole pathway metabolites with TF1. Among the three foods, TF1 uniquely increased fecal polyphenols and the resulting post-biotics. Compared to CF, consumption of TF1 largely reduced fecal levels of endocannabinoid-like metabolites and sphingolipids while increasing both fecal and circulating polyunsaturated fatty acid profiles, suggesting that TF1 may have modulated gastrointestinal inflammation and motility. Stools of TF1-fed dogs showed reductions in phospholipid profiles, suggesting fiber-dependent changes to colonic mucosal structure.DiscussionThese findings indicate that the use of a specific pre-biotic fiber bundle may be beneficial in healthy dogs and in dogs with CGE

Adipokines: Linking metabolic syndrome, the immune system, and arthritic diseases

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) represents a cluster of metabolic and cardiovascular complications, including obesity and visceral adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension, which directly increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). Patients with arthritic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, have a higher incidence of CVD. Although recent advances in the treatment of arthritic diseases, the incidence of CVD remains elevated, and MetS has been identified as a possible link between CVD and arthritic diseases. Chronic low-grade inflammation associated with obesity has been established as a significant contributing factor to the increased prevalence of MetS. Adipokines, which play important physiological roles in metabolic activities contributing to the pathogenesis of MetS, are also involved in the regulation of autoimmune and/or inflammatory processes associated with arthritic diseases. Therefore, MetS and dysregulated secretion of pro-inflammatory adipokines have been recognized as a molecular link between CVD and arthritis diseases. In the present paper, we review recent evidence supporting the role played by adipokines, in particular leptin, adiponectin, and lipocalin-2, in the modulation of the immune system, MetS and arthritic diseases. The underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are discussed, as well as potential new therapeutic strategies.Acknowledgments: OG and FL are Staff Personnel of Xunta de Galicia (Servizo Galego de Saude, SERGAS) through a research-staff stabilization contract (ISCIII/SERGAS). VF is a “Sara Borrell” Researcher funded by ISCIII and FEDER (CD16/00111). RG is a “Miguel Servet” Researcher funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and FEDER. CRF is a pre-doctoral research scholar funded by ISCIII and FEDER (Exp.18/00188). OG, MAGG, and RG are members of RETICS Programme, RD16/0012/0014 (RIER: Red de Investigación en Inflamación y Enfermedades Reumáticas) via Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and FEDER. FL is a member of CIBERCV (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares). The work of OG and JP (PI17/00409), RG (PI16/01870 and CP15/00007) and FL (PI15/00681 PI18/00821 and CB16/11/00226) were funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and FEDER. OG is a beneficiary of a project funded by Research Executive Agency of the European Union in the framework of MSCA-RISE Action of the H2020 Programme (Project number 734899). RG is beneficiary of a project funded by Mutua Madrileña 2018. AM wishes to acknowledge financial support from the European Structural and Social Funds through the Research Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos Mokslo Taryba) according to the activity ‘Improvement of researchers’ qualification by implementing world-class R&D projects’ of Measure No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 (grant application code: 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0157, agreement No. DOTSUT-215) and the new funding programme: Attracting Foreign Researchers for Research Implementation (2018–2022). The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Science Synthesis of 2-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-ylimino)-5-arylidenethiazolidin-4-ones,1-(1Himidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-yl)-5-methyl-3-aryl-1,3,5-triazinane-2-thiones and 3-(1H-imidazo

1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-amine (1) reacts with ammoniumthiocyanide to form 1-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-yl)thiourea (2), which on reaction with chloroacetic acid gives 2-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-ylimino)thiazolidin-4-one (3). Compound 3 on condensation gives 2-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2ylimino)-5-arylidenethiazolidin-4-ones (4a-e). Further 1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-amine (1) reacts with aromatic isothiocyanates to form compound 5 which is cyclized to 1-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-yl)-5-methyl-3-aryl-1,3,5-triazinane-2-thiones (6a-e) and 3-(1H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridin-2-yl)-5-aryl-1,3,5oxadiazinane-4-thiones (7a-e). 1

Building a Bilingual Corpus based on Hybrid Approach for Malayalam-English Machine Translation

Word alignment in bilingual corpora has been a very active research topic in the Machine Translation research groups. In this research paper, we describe an alignment system that aligns English-Malayalam texts at word level in parallel sentences. The alignment of translated segments with source segments is very essential for building parallel corpora. Since word alignment research on Malayalam and English languages is still in its immaturity, it is not a trivial task for Malayalam-English text. A parallel corpus is a collection of texts in two languages, one of which is the translation equivalent of the other. Thus, the main purpose of this system is to construct word-aligned parallel corpus to be used in Malayalam-English machine translation. The proposed approach is a hybrid approach, a combination of corpus based and dictionary lookup approaches. The corpus based approach is based on the first three IBM models and Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. For the dictionary lookup approach, the proposed system uses the bilingual Malayalam-English Dictionary

Thermal treatment in combination with laminated packaging under modified atmosphere enhances the shelf life of pearl millet flour

Pearl millet grain is storable for months without development of rancidity, while milled flour has very short shelf life of 5 to 7 days due to high fat content and lipolytic action of enzymes. Apart from enzymatic degradation of lipids and c-glycosyl flavones, oxygen present in air promotes oxidation of free fatty acids (FFA) leading to production of peroxides which impart off flavours and bitterness. To control both enzymatic and oxidative effects, implementation of an integrated approach of thermal treatment, efficient packaging, and modified atmosphere was used for shelf life extension. Heat treatment of grains at 150 °C for 30 min before milling and storage of flour in laminated pouches under nitrogen atmosphere was found to extend shelf life by 60 days compared to untreated samples by decreasing FFA value by 10–15 fold and peroxide value by 2 fold. Genotype, thermal treatment, packaging material and atmosphere were found to be significantly different for rancidity parameters

Evaluation of fly-ash-treated reclaimed asphalt pavement for the design of sustainable pavement bases: An Indian perspective

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is a term given to removed and/or milled pavement materials containing asphalt and aggregates. This material is obtained from recycling the existing flexible pavements which have reached the end of their design life or shown excessive cracking. The use of RAP has grown widely reducing the use of virgin material thus helps to conserve the natural resources. It also reduces the amount of construction debris reaching the landfills. RAP can be used in construction of base/subbase of a new pavement which results in huge savings. A 100 % RAP cannot be used directly in base/subbase layers because of its inferior properties such as unconfined compressive strength (UCS), California bearing ratio (CBR) and resilient modulus (Mr). This is because RAP material has a very low or limited bonding as the particles are coated with aged bitumen. These properties can be improved by using RAP in combination with virgin aggregates (VA) and/or calcium based additives such as lime, cement or fly ash. Calcium rich fly ash and a fraction of VA have been used in the present study to evaluate the strength in terms of UCS and stiffness in terms of Mr of RAP to promote as a pavement base/subbase material. The RAP material was collected from an ongoing national highway (NH) expansion project in India. Class “C” fly ash was collected from Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), Tamil Nadu for stabilization studies. Specimens were prepared with 100 % RAP, 80 % RAP + 20 % VA and stabilized with 10, 20, 30 and 40 % dosages of fly ash by weight. In this study, emphasis is given to the mixing methodologies adopted to amend base materials and stabilizer. Traditionally, addition method is preferred for stabilization studies and replacement is preferred for mixture of two materials by weight of the principal material. Two methodologies were compared in terms of results obtained from the Mr and UCS studies and a balanced method was suggested. To know the level of interaction of fly ash with the bitumen coated aged aggregate, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) studies were also performed. It was observed that the balanced addition method of mixing the stabilizer by weight of principal material would be more beneficial in terms of the strength and stiffness of the mixes. The new design mix consisting of 80:20 proportion of RAP and VA stabilized with 40 % fly ash by weight of the total mix, has met the design specifications laid down by Indian roads congress (IRC) for a base/subbase material of low volume roads