Alcohol and energy drinks: individual contribution of common ingredients on ethanol-induced behaviour

Since energy drinks (EDs) were sold to the general public as soft drinks and recreational beverages, mixing EDs with ethanol has grown in popularity, particularly among younger people. Given the research that links these drinks with higher risk behaviors and increased ethanol intake, ethanol combined with EDs (AmEDs) is a particularly worrying combination. EDs generally commonly include a variety of ingredients. Sugar, caffeine, taurine, and B-group vitamins are almost always present. Studies on the combined effect of ethanol and sugar and caffeine on ethanol-induced behaviors are extensive. Not so much in regards to taurine and vitamins. This review briefly summarises available information from research on the isolated compounds on EtOH-induced behaviors first, and secondly, the combination of AmEDs on EtOH effects. The conclusion is that additional research is needed to fully comprehend the characteristics and consequences of AmEDs on EtOH-induced behaviors

Perceived Intensity and Palatability of Fatty Culinary Preparations is Associated with Individual Fatty Acid Detection Threshold and the Fatty Acid Profile of Oils Used as Ingredients

The term oleogustus was recently proposed to describe a sixth basic taste that could guide preference for fatty foods and dishes to an extent. However, experimental data on food preference based on fatty acid (FA) content is scarce. Our aim was to examine the role of FA profile of oils and preparations as well as FA sensory thresholds on the palatability of salty and sweet culinary preparations representative of traditional Spanish Mediterranean cooking. In this study, we used three oils with similar texture and odor profile but different in their FA composition (saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated) and compared subjects in regard to their FA detection threshold and perceived pleasantness and intensity. Our results indicate that whereas saturated FAs cannot be detected at physiological concentrations, individuals can be categorized as tasters and nontasters, according to their sensory threshold to linoleic acid, which is negatively associated with perceived intensity (r= -0.393, P< 0.001) but positively with palatability (r= 0.246, P = . 0.018). These differences may be due to a possible response to a fat taste. This sixth taste, or oleogustus. would allow establishing differences in taste intensity/palatability considering the FA profile of the culinary preparations. Given that tasters can detect linoleic and oleic acid at lower concentrations than nontasters, a greater amount of unsaturated FAs in culinary preparations could provoke an unpleasant experience. This finding could be relevant in the context of the culinary sector and to further our understanding of food preference and eating behavior

Alcohol mixed with energy drinks: what about taurine?

Rationale: Since energy drinks (EDs) were marketed to the general public as recreational and soft drinks, mixing these with alcohol has become a popular practice, especially in the younger population. Alcohol mixed with EDs (AmEDs) is a particularly alarming combination, given the evidence that consistently associate these drinks with increased risk behaviours and greater alcohol consumption. Caffeine and taurine are commonly found in EDs. In contrast to caffeine, the studies on taurine psychoactive properties and how this amino acid influences ethanol intake alone or in combination with caffeine are not so numerous. Objectives: We summarised relevant and available data on the studies focusing on taurine as a psychoactive agent and its influence on ethanol (EtOH)-induced behaviours. Given the increased risk that represents mixing alcohol with energy drinks, we put emphasis on the research exploring the impact of these combinations on motivated behaviour towards EtOH consumption. Results: The research on taurine properties on motivated behaviour towards EtOH consumption is limited, and mostly all done in combination with caffeine or other molecules. This makes it difficult to elucidate the effect of this amino acid when combined with alcohol. Conclusions: Incomplete understanding of the properties and effects of AmEDs is unavoidable until more studies are performed on the influence of taurine on motivation to consume alcohol. Taurine should be further explored, particularly in regard to its potential beneficial applications, motivational properties and synergies with other psychoactive ingredients (i.e. caffeine)

Service Availability Monitoring Framework Based On Commodity Software

The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) infrastructure continuously operates thousands of grid services scattered around hundreds of sites. Participating sites are organized in regions and support several virtual organizations, thus creating a very complex and heterogeneous environment. The Service Availability Monitoring (SAM) framework is responsible for the monitoring of this infrastructure. SAM is a complete monitoring framework for grid services and grid operational tools. Its current implementation tailored for a decentralized operation replaces the old SAM system which is now being decommissioned from production. SAM provides functionality for submission of monitoring probes, gathering of probes results, processing of monitoring data, and retrieval of monitoring data in terms of service status, availability, and reliability. In this paper we present the SAM framework. We motivate the need from moving from the old SAM to a new monitoring infrastructure deployed and managed in a distributed environment and explain how SAM exploits and builds on top of commodity software, such as Nagios and Apache ActiveMQ, to provide a reliable and scalable system. We also present the SAM architecture by highlighting the adopted technologies and how the different SAM components deliver a complete monitoring framework

Evaluation of symptomatic drug effects in Alzheimer's disease: strategies for prediction of efficacy in humans

International audienc

Evaluation of symptomatic drug effects in Alzheimer's disease: strategies for prediction of efficacy in humans.

In chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), the arsenal of biomarkers available to determine the effectiveness of symptomatic treatment is very limited. Interpretation of the results provided in literature is cumbersome and it becomes difficult to predict their standardization to a larger patient population. Indeed, cognitive assessment alone does not appear to have sufficient predictive value of drug efficacy in early clinical development of AD treatment. In recent years, research has contributed to the emergence of new tools to assess brain activity relying on innovative technologies of imaging and electrophysiology. However, the relevance of the use of these newer markers in treatment response assessment is waiting for validation. This review shows how the early clinical assessment of symptomatic drugs could benefit from the inclusion of suitable pharmacodynamic markers. This review also emphasizes the importance of re-evaluating a step-by-step strategy in drug development

WLCG Monitoring Consolidation and further evolution

The WLCG monitoring system solves a challenging task of keeping track of the LHC computing activities on the WLCG infrastructure, ensuring health and performance of the distributed services at more than 170 sites. The challenge consists of decreasing the effort needed to operate the monitoring service and to satisfy the constantly growing requirements for its scalability and performance. This contribution describes the recent consolidation work aimed to reduce the complexity of the system, and to ensure more effective operations, support and service management. This was done by unifying where possible the implementation of the monitoring components. The contribution also covers further steps like the evaluation of the new technologies for data storage, processing and visualization and migration to a new technology stack