Blood pressure in blacks and whites and its relationship to dietary sodium and potassium intake

The 24-hour dietary intake and blood pressure of 1928 black and 9739 white adults derived from the data sets of the first US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) of 1971-1974 were analyzed. Contrary to expectation, the absolute and relative intakes of sodium and potassium in blacks were less than those of whites. However, because the difference in potassium was greater than the difference in sodium, blacks did have a significantly higher sodium/potassium ratio than whites. Blacks had significantly higher blood pressure than whites even when adjusted for differences in sodium/potassium ratio. It is concluded that the higher blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension in blacks does not appear to be a function of an absolutely greater dietary sodium intake, but related to a relatively low intake of potassium. It is possible that blacks have a greater sensitivity than whites to the hypertensinogenic effects of sodium which, coupled with the relatively low dietary intake of potassium, accounts for their increased blood pressure.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25014/1/0000441.pd

The Human Sweet Tooth

Humans love the taste of sugar and the word "sweet" is used to describe not only this basic taste quality but also something that is desirable or pleasurable, e.g., la dolce vita. Although sugar or sweetened foods are generally among the most preferred choices, not everyone likes sugar, especially at high concentrations. The focus of my group's research is to understand why some people have a sweet tooth and others do not. We have used genetic and molecular techniques in humans, rats, mice, cats and primates to understand the origins of sweet taste perception. Our studies demonstrate that there are two sweet receptor genes (TAS1R2 and TAS1R3), and alleles of one of the two genes predict the avidity with which some mammals drink sweet solutions. We also find a relationship between sweet and bitter perception. Children who are genetically more sensitive to bitter compounds report that very sweet solutions are more pleasant and they prefer sweet carbonated beverages more than milk, relative to less bitter-sensitive peers. Overall, people differ in their ability to perceive the basic tastes, and particular constellations of genes and experience may drive some people, but not others, toward a caries-inducing sweet diet. Future studies will be designed to understand how a genetic preference for sweet food and drink might contribute to the development of dental caries

Behavioral genetics and taste

This review focuses on behavioral genetic studies of sweet, umami, bitter and salt taste responses in mammals. Studies involving mouse inbred strain comparisons and genetic analyses, and their impact on elucidation of taste receptors and transduction mechanisms are discussed. Finally, the effect of genetic variation in taste responsiveness on complex traits such as drug intake is considered. Recent advances in development of genomic resources make behavioral genetics a powerful approach for understanding mechanisms of taste

Psycholinguistic variables matter in odor naming

People from Western societies generally find it difficult to name odors. In trying to explain this, the olfactory literature has proposed several theories that focus heavily on properties of the odor itself but rarely discuss properties of the label used to describe it. However, recent studies show speakers of languages with dedicated smell lexicons can name odors with relative ease. Has the role of the lexicon been overlooked in the olfactory literature? Word production studies show properties of the label, such as word frequency and semantic context, influence naming; but this field of research focuses heavily on the visual domain. The current study combines methods from both fields to investigate word production for olfaction in two experiments. In the first experiment, participants named odors whose veridical labels were either high-frequency or low-frequency words in Dutch, and we found that odors with high-frequency labels were named correctly more often. In the second experiment, edibility was used for manipulating semantic context in search of a semantic interference effect, presenting the odors in blocks of edible and inedible odor source objects to half of the participants. While no evidence was found for a semantic interference effect, an effect of word frequency was again present. Our results demonstrate psycholinguistic variables-such as word frequency-are relevant for olfactory naming, and may, in part, explain why it is difficult to name odors in certain languages. Olfactory researchers cannot afford to ignore properties of an odor's label

Un anxiolytique naturel: l'hydrolysat trypsique de caseine alpha-s1 de lait bovin. Son intérêt en médecine humaine et vétérinaire

International audienceProduit d'origine naturelle, l'hydrolysat trypsique de caséine alpha-s1 de lait bovin (HTC) contient un décapeptide actif, l'alpha-casozépine, aux propriétés pharmacologiques intéressantes. Les tests et les essais précliniques et cliniques, réalisés tant sur des animaux (rats, chiens, chats) que sur des humains, ont en effet mis en évidence pour cette molécule : une affinité certaine pour les récepteurs GABA-A avec profil benzodiazepine-like, une action anxiolytique et anti-stress, associée à une bonne tolérance caractérisée en particulier par l'absence d'accoutumance, de dépendance, de sédation, de déficit mnésique et de toxicité. Si l'HTC est un complément alimentaire qui ne saurait se substituer aux médicaments psychotropes (benzodiazépines en particulier) prescrits dans le respect des bonnes pratiques dans le traitement des troubles importants de l'anxiété et du sommeil, elle pourrait cependant les suppléer dans la prévention et le suivi médicalisé des difficultés d'adaptation à des contraintes et à des changements de situation stressants de la vie courante. Un essai clinique pilote original, mené sur la prise en charge globale du sevrage des benzodiazépines, incluant la prescription d'HTC, ouvre la voie à une nouvelle modalité d'utilisation de cette molécule en médecine de ville. Du fait d'un certain parallélisme neuropsychiatrique (psychopathologique) entre l'homme et le chien domestique, il est intéressant de présenter cet anxiolytique naturel dans une approche thérapeutique commune en médecine humaine et vétérinaire

Combined utilization of ion mobility and ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to identify multiply charged constituents in natural organic matter.

Natural organic matter as complex biogeochemical non-repetitive material was investigated with ion mobility mass spectrometry (IMS) and ultra-high-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) approaches in order to unravel the existence of multiply charged state constituents. Hereby we describe and assign the potential molecular formulae of these doubly charged species, derived from FTICR-MS, and the existence of these species was confirmed via IMS. The parallel application of these powerful techniques enabled the boundaries of the understanding of natural organic matter to be pushed further

Effet d'une intoxication aluminique par intubation gastrique chez le Rat adulte : Etude comparative avec le Rat en développement

Adulte male rats were treated by gastric intubation by aluminum chloride (0, 100 mg Al/kg/day) and aluminum lactate (0, 100 and 200 mg Al/kg/day) during 10 days. The results indicated a decreased food consumption, a reduction in body weight, a significant decrease of the plasma concentration of total proteins and a significant increase of the aluminum concentration in hepatic homogenates at 100 mg Al chloride and 200mg Al lactate. On the contrary, the aluminum concentrations in the plasma and cérébral homogenates did not significantly differ between the various groupsL'aluminium administré par intubation gastrique à des rats mâles adultes durant 10 jours entraîne un ralentissement de la prise alimentaire et de la croissance à la dose de 100 mg Al/kg/j (chlorure d'aluminium), et à celle de 200 mg Al/kg/j (lactate d'aluminium). Une chute du taux des protéines plasmatiques totales et une élévation de la concentration en aluminium dans le foie sont également observées. Par contre, les teneurs en aluminium plasmatique et cérébrale ne varient pas. Les effets des intoxications chez les rats adultes sont beaucoup moins importants que ceux constatés chez de jeunes rats intoxiqués dans les mêmes condition

Laser-Plasma Sources for Soft-X-Ray Projection Lithography

Results are reported concerning high-repetition-rate excimer lasers with average powers up to 415 W and their usage for generating laser-plasma soft X-ray sources. A conversion efficiency of laser light into monochromatized soft X-ray radiation of 0.7% at 13.5 nm (2% bandwidth) was achieved using an excimer laser of which the beam quality was adapted for this application. Two methods to mitigate the production of plasma debris have been analyzed: tape targets and the use of Kr as a buffer gas. The optimum coating thickness of tape targets coated with Ta has determined to be 1 mum. Ta tape targets and the Kr buffer were used in a debris contamination test of 10(5) pulses. After this exposure, the reflectivity of a normal incidence Mo-Si multilayer mirror that faced the plasma, was found to be 18% lower. The contamination could be removed by cleaning, which restored the reflectivity to 97% of the initial value