Water and oil signal assignment in low-moisture mozzarella as determined by time-domain NMR T2 relaxometry

A time-domain H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry method was elaborated for the rapid microstructural characterization of mozzarella cheese. For this purpose, there is a strong need to know how the experimentally determined T-2 relaxation time distribution can be related to specific constituents in mozzarella. In this study, a detailed investigation is offered for fresh and aged low-moisture mozzarella cheese, often applied as a pizza cheese, by application of both a conventional Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence and a free-induction decay CPMG (FID-CPMG) sequence. The relaxation behavior was further elucidated by addition of deuterium oxide and by mild heat treatment of samples. The relaxation times of water protons in mozzarella were found to range from a few microseconds to some tens of milliseconds (in aged mozzarella) or to about hundred milliseconds (in fresh mozzarella). The upper limit of the T-2 distribution can even be extended to the seconds range upon releasing water protons from the mozzarella matrix using a mild heat treatment or upon addition of deuterated water. Both stimuli also provided evidence for the absorption of water into the cheese matrix. The potential release and uptake of water demonstrated that mozzarella acts as a very dynamic system during production and storage. The detected differences in the behavior of the water fraction between fresh and aged low-moisture mozzarella might be utilized to study the influence of either production and/or storage conditions on the cheese ripening process

Assessment of oral health in older adults by non-dental professional caregivers : development and validation of a photograph-supported oral health–related section for the interRAI suite of instruments

Objectives An optimized oral health-related section and a video training were developed and validated for the interRAI suite of instruments. The latter is completed by professional non-dental caregivers and used in more than 40 countries to assess care needs of older adults. Methods The optimized oral health-related section (ohr-interRAI) consists of nine items and a video training that were developed in consecutive phases. To evaluate psychometric properties, a study was conducted in 260 long-term care residents. Each resident was assessed by a dentist and by four caregivers (two who received the video training, two who did not). Results Mean kappa values and percent agreement between caregivers and dentist ranged between kappa = 0.60 (80.2%) for dry mouth and kappa = 0.13 (54.0%) for oral hygiene. The highest inter-caregiver agreement was found for dry mouth with kappa = 0.63 [95% CI: 0.56-0.70] (81.6%), while for the item palate/lips/cheeks only kappa = 0.27 [95% CI: 0.18-0.36] (76.7%) was achieved. Intra-caregiver agreement ranged between kappa = 0.93 [95% CI: 0.79-1.00] (96.4%) for dry mouth and kappa = 0.45 [95% CI: 0.06-0.84] (82.8%) for gums. Logistic regression analysis showed only small differences between caregivers who watched the video training and those who did not. Conclusions Psychometric properties of the optimized ohr-interRAI section were improved compared to previous versions. Nevertheless, particularly the items based on inspection of the mouth require further refinement and caregiver training needs to be improved

Collaborative effort to operationalize the gender transformative approach in the Barotse Floodplain

Agricultural interventions that aim at alleviating rural poverty have important gender implications. The paper explores a Gender Transformative Approach recognizing that fishing, post- harvest processing, and trading are all gendered activities. On the Barotse Floodplain (Zambia) women are relegated to perform tasks within less profitable nodes of the fish value chain. The assessment of ecosystem services in a select number of Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) focal communities included women’s and men’s perspectives and diverse provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services.Cultivate Africa’s Future Fund (CULTIAF

Livestock and sustainable food systems: Status, trends, and priority actions

Livestock are a critically important component of the food system, although the sector needs a profound transformation to ensure that it contributes to a rapid transition towards sustainable food systems. This chapter reviews and synthesises the evidence available on changes in demand for livestock products in the last few decades, and the multiple socio-economic roles that livestock have around the world. We also describe the nutrition, health, and environmental impacts for which the sector is responsible. We propose eight critical actions for transitioning towards a more sustainable operating space for livestock. (1) Facilitate shifts in the consumption of animal source foods (ASF), recognising that global reductions will be required, especially in communities with high consumption levels, while promoting increased levels in vulnerable groups, including the undernourished, pregnant women and the elderly. (2) Continue work towards the sustainable intensification of livestock systems, paying particular attention to animal welfare, food-feed competition, blue water use, disease transmission and perverse economic incentives. (3) Embrace the potential of circularity in livestock systems as a way of partially decoupling livestock from land. (4) Adopt practices that lead to the direct or indirect mitigation of greenhouse gases. (5) Adopt some of the vast array of novel technologies at scale and design incentive mechanisms for their rapid deployment. (6) Diversify the protein sources available for human consumption and feed, focusing on the high-quality alternative protein sources that have lower environmental impacts. (7) Tackle antimicrobial resistance effectively through a combination of technology and new regulations, particularly for the fast-growing poultry and pork sectors and for feedlot operations. (8) Implement true cost of food and true-pricing approaches to ASF consumption

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Willingness of dental professionals to participate in special care dentistry

Objectives: To assess dental professionals’ characteristics and willingness to participate in the future organization of Special Care Dentistry (SCD) for patients with motor disabilities (MD), patients with developmental disabilities (DD) and older adults (OA), in Flanders, Belgium. Methods: An online questionnaire survey around received education, providing care and future organization of SCD was performed between December 2020 and January 2021. Descriptive, bivariate (Mann-Whitney U Test, Pearson Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact Test) and binomial logistic regression analyses were performed with profession (dentist of dental hygienist) as explanatory variable (adjusted for covariates years of experience and gender). The project was approved by the Ghent University Hospital ethics committee (B6702020000556). Results: The survey was completed by 308 dentists (response rate 7.7%) and 51 dental hygienists (response rate 35.2%). There was a higher proportion of male dentists (40.6% vs. 1.6%; P<0.001) and dentists had more years of experience (median 31; range [1-55]) than dental hygienists (median 1; range [0-25]; P<0.001). A higher proportion of dentists treated SCD patients (96.4% vs. 87.0%; P<0.05). The adjusted models revealed that a higher proportion of dental hygienists than dentists had received education about all included SCD target groups (MD: OR 6.21, 95%CI [2.37-16.29]; DD: OR 6.21, 95%CI [2.37-16.29]; OA: OR 3.70, 95%CI [1.40-9.75]). Furthermore, more dental hygienists were open to (a) receive future education about SCD patients (MD: OR 6.70, 95%CI [1.88-23.83]; DD: OR 5.13, 95%CI [1.43-18.37]; OA: OR 2.47, 95%CI [0.91-6.70]), (b) use mobile dental equipment (OR 5.41, 95%CI [2.33-12.54]) and (c) be part of an oral healthcare network for patients with MD (OR 4.09, 95%CI [1.52-11.00]), patients with DD (OR 4.88, 95%CI [1.82-13.10]) or older adults (OR 4.64, 95%CI [1.73-12.43]) in future. Conclusions The results suggest that dental hygienists are more open to play a role within the future organization of SCD in Flanders

Direct transfer of zinc between plants is channelled by common mycorrhizal network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and evidenced by changes in expression of zinc transporter genes in fungus and plant

The role that common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) play in plant-to-plant transfer of zinc (Zn) has not yet been investigated, despite the proved functions of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in crop Zn acquisition. Here, two autotrophic Medicago truncatula plants were linked by a CMN formed by Rhizophagus irregularis. Plants were grown in vitro in physically separated compartments (Donor-C and Receiver-C) and their connection ensured only by CMN. A symbiosis-defective mutant of M. truncatula was used as control in Receiver-C. Plants in both compartments were grown on Zn-free medium, and only the leaves of the donor plants were Zn fertilized. A direct transfer of Zn was demonstrated from donor leaves to receiver shoots mediated by CMN. Direct transfer of Zn was supported by changes in the expression of fungal genes, RiZRT1 and RiZnT1, and plant gene MtZIP2 in roots and MtNAS1 in roots and shoots of the receiver plants. Moreover, Zn transfer was supported by the change in expression of MtZIP14 gene in AM fungal colonized roots. This work is the first evidence of a direct Zn transfer from a donor to a receiver plant via CMN, and of a triggering of transcriptional regulation of fungal-plant genes involved in Zn transport-related processes

Inhibition of Kupffer cell activity induces hepatic triglyceride synthesis in fasted rats, independent of lipopolysaccharide challenge

BACKGROUND: Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), cleared from the blood by Kupffer cells, induce hypertriglyceridemia. AIMS: To test the hypothesis that GdCl(3), through inhibition of large Kupffer cell activity, modulates LPS-induced hyperlipidemia in rats. METHODS: Male Wistar rats received a single intravenous injection of GdCl(3)(10 mg/kg) or saline, 24 h before intraperitoneal LPS (1.5 mg/kg) administration. Serum and hepatic lipids as well as activity of key enzymes controlling fatty acid synthesis and esterification in liver tissue were measured. The incorporation of labeled precursors into lipids was assessed in cultured precision-cut liver slices. RESULTS: GdCl(3) does not prevent hypertriglyceridemia occurring in LPS-treated rats. Surprisingly, GdCl(3) per se is able to promote triglycerides accumulation in the liver tissue, an effect related to an increase in hepatic fatty acid esterification. Such an effect also occurs in rats receiving a dietary supplementation with glycine (5%) known to inhibit Kupffer cell secretory capacity. CONCLUSIONS: Large Kupffer cell inhibition does not prevent LPS-induced hypertriglyceridemia and even leads to a metabolic shift of fatty acids towards their esterification and accumulation in the liver tissue, suggesting that Kupffer cells play a role in the regulation of lipid metabolism of the adjacent hepatocytes, independent of any inflammatory stimulus

Biological control agents : from field to market, problems, and challenges

Global food security is vulnerable due to massive growth of the human population, changes in global climate, the emergence of novel/more virulent pathogens, and demands from increasingly discerning consumers for chemical-free, sustainably produced food products. Bacterium-based biological control agents (BCAs), if used as part of an integrated management system, may satisfy the above demands. We focus on the advantages, limitations, problems, and challenges involved in such strategies