Effect of salmon plasma protein on Pacific whiting surimi gelation under various ohmic heating conditions

The effect of salmon blood plasma (SPP) on the gelation of Pacific whiting surimi under different ohmic heating conditions was investigated. SPP was found to significantly increase gel strength in gels heated ohmically to and held at 60° for 30 min followed by heating ohmically to 90°C. SPP at a level of 1 g/100 g was also found to increase gel strength in gels held at 25°C for 2 h prior to ohmic heating. This increase was not seen in gels where EDTA was added to inhibit the activity of endogenous transglutaminase (ETG). SPP also created a more pronounced setting effect as measured by dynamic rheology and SDS-PAGE. SPP was found to effectively inhibit protease activity through TCA-soluble peptide analysis. Scanning electron microcopy revealed a loosely arranged gel network caused by protease enzymes. It was reversed by the addition of SPP as well as setting at 25°C due to ETG.Keywords: Ohmic heating, Protease, Salmon plasma, Transglutaminase, Surimi gelationKeywords: Ohmic heating, Protease, Salmon plasma, Transglutaminase, Surimi gelatio

Salmon blood plasma: Effective inhibitor of protease-laden Pacific whiting surimi and salmon mince

The effect of salmon plasma (SP) from Chinook salmon on proteolytic inhibition was investigated. SP was found to inhibit both cysteine and serine proteases as well as protease extracted from Pacific whiting muscle. SP was found to contain a 55 kDa cysteine protease inhibitor through SDS-PAGE inhibitor staining. Freeze dried salmon plasma (FSP) and salmon plasma concentrated by ultrafiltration (CSP) were tested for their ability to inhibit autolysis in Pacific whiting surimi and salmon mince at concentrations of 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2%. Pacific whiting surimi autolysis was inhibited by an average of 89% regardless of concentration while inhibition of salmon mince autolysis increased with concentration (P<0.05). CSP performed slightly better than FSP at inhibiting salmon mince autolysis (P<0.05). Serine protease inhibition decreased when SP heated above 40°C but was stable across a broad NaCl and pH range. Cysteine protease inhibitors exhibited good temperature, NaCl, and pH stability.Keywords: Protease inhibitor, Salmon plasma, Autolysis, Pacific whiting, SurimiKeywords: Protease inhibitor, Salmon plasma, Autolysis, Pacific whiting, Surim

School-Based Intervention Impacts Availability of Vegetables and Beverages in Participants’ Homes

As rates of metabolic syndrome rise, children consume too few vegetables and too much added sugar. Because children tend to eat what is available at home, the home environment plays a key role in shaping dietary habits. This secondary analysis evaluated the effects of a school-based gardening, cooking, and nutrition education intervention (TX Sprouts) compared to control on the availability of vegetables, fruit juice, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) at home. In the TX Sprouts cluster-randomized trial, 16 schools were randomized to TX Sprouts

Changes in Bone Mineral Density During and After Lactation in Ugandan Women With HIV on Tenofovir-Based Antiretroviral Therapy.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with bone loss, but data are limited in lactation, when physiological bone mineral mobilization is occurring. This research charted changes in areal bone mineral density (aBMD) during and after lactation in Ugandan women with HIV (WWH) initiated onto ART in pregnancy, compared to women without HIV (REF). One-hundred WWH on tenofovir-based ART and 100 REF were enrolled in pregnancy. Lumbar spine (LS), total hip (TH), and whole-body-less-head (WBLH) aBMD were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at 2, 14, and 26 weeks of lactation, and at 3 months postlactation. The primary outcome was the difference between groups in mean percent change in LS aBMD between 2 and 14 weeks. Statistical analysis was performed in hierarchical repeated measures ANOVA models that corrected for multiple testing. Median age was 23.4 (IQR, 21.0 to 26.8) years. WWH had lower body weight. aBMD decreased in both groups during lactation, but WWH had greater decreases at TH (2-to-26 weeks: WWH [n = 63] -5.9% [95% CI, -6.4 to -5.4] versus REF [n = 64] -4.3% [95% CI, -4.8 to -3.8]; group*time point interaction p = .008). Decreases in LS aBMD were similar in WWH and REF (2-to-26 weeks: -2.0% [95% CI, -2.5 to -1.5]), although there was a tendency toward a smaller decrease in WWH between 2 and 14 weeks (WWH [n = 77] -1.8% [95% CI, -2.2 to -1.4] versus REF [n = 69] -2.9% [95% CI, -3.3 to -2.5]; group*time point interaction p = .08). Postlactation, LS aBMD was higher relative to week 2 in both groups. TH and WBLH aBMD did not return to week 2 values in WWH but did in REF (TH postlactation versus week 2: WWH [n = 61] -3.1% [95% CI, -3.6 to -2.6]; REF [n = 29] +0.1% [95% CI, -0.9 to +1.1]). These data show accentuated bone loss during lactation and only partial skeletal recovery by 3 months postlactation in Ugandan WWH on tenofovir-based ART. Studies are ongoing to understand longer-term consequences for bone health. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

January 2006 seafloor-spreading event at 9°50′N, East Pacific Rise: Ridge dike intrusion and transform fault interactions from regional hydroacoustic data

An array of autonomous underwater hydrophones is used to investigate regional seismicity associated with the 22 January 2006 seafloor-spreading event on the northern East Pacific Rise near 9°50′N. Significant earthquake activity was observed beginning 3 weeks prior to the eruption, where a total of 255 earthquakes were detected within the vicinity of the 9°50′N area. This was followed by a series of 252 events on 22 January and a rapid decline to background seismicity levels during the subsequent 3 days. Because of their small magnitudes, accurate locations could be derived for only 20 of these events, 18 of which occurred during a 1-h period on 22 January. These earthquakes cluster near 9°45′N and 9°55′N, at the distal ends of the young lava flows identified posteruption, where the activity displays a distinct spatial-temporal pattern, alternating from the north to the south and then back to the north. This implies either rapid bilateral propagation along the rift or the near-simultaneous injection of melt vertically from the axial magma lens. Short-duration T wave risetimes are consistent with the eruption of lavas in the vicinity of 9°50′N on 22 January 2006. Eruptions on 12 and 15–16 January also may be inferred from the risetime data; however, the locations of these smaller-magnitude events cannot be determined accurately. Roughly 15 h after the last earthquakes were located adjacent to the eruption site, a sequence of 16 earthquakes began to the north-northeast at a distance of 25–40 km from the 9°50′N site. These events are located in vicinity of the Clipperton Transform and its western inside corner, an area from which the regional hydrophone network routinely detects seismicity. Coulomb stress modeling indicates that a dike intrusion spanning the known eruptive zone to the south (9°46′–9°56′N) would act to promote normal faulting or a combination of normal faulting and transform slip within this region, with stress changes on the order of 1–10 kPa

Quality of life in restorative versus non-restorative resections for rectal cancer:systematic review

BACKGROUND: Low rectal cancers could be treated using restorative (anterior resection, AR) or non-restorative procedures with an end/permanent stoma (Hartmann’s, HE; or abdominoperineal excision, APE). Although the surgical choice is determined by tumour and patient factors, quality of life (QoL) will also influence the patient's future beyond cancer. This systematic review of the literature compared postoperative QoL between the restorative and non-restorative techniques using validated measurement tools. METHODS: The review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020131492). Embase and MEDLINE, along with grey literature and trials websites, were searched comprehensively for papers published since 2012. Inclusion criteria were original research in an adult population with rectal cancer that reported QoL using a validated tool, including the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-CR30, QLQ-CR29, and QLQ-CR38. Studies were included if they compared AR with APE (or HE), independent of study design. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Outcomes of interest were: QoL, pain, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (stool frequency, flatulence, diarrhoea and constipation), and body image. RESULTS: Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria with a total of 6453 patients; all papers were observational and just four included preoperative evaluations. There was no identifiable difference in global QoL and pain between the two surgical techniques. Reported results regarding GI symptoms and body image documented similar findings. The ROBINS-I tool highlighted a significant risk of bias across the studies. CONCLUSION: Currently, it is not possible to draw a firm conclusion on postoperative QoL, pain, GI symptoms, and body image following restorative or non-restorative surgery. The included studies were generally of poor quality, lacked preoperative evaluations, and showed considerable bias in the data

AN APPROACH FOR THE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF GP-GPUS IN PARALLEL COMBINED SIMULATION

A major challenge in the field of Modeling &amp; Simulation is providing efficient parallel computation for a variety of algorithms. Algorithms that are described easily and computed efficiently for continuous simulation, may be complex to describe and/or efficiently execute in a discrete event context, and vice-versa. Real-world models often employ multiple algorithms that are optimally defined in one approach or the other. Parallel combined simulation addresses this problem by allowing models to define algorithmic components across multiple paradigms. In this paper, we illustrate the performance of parallel combined simulation, where the continuous component is executed across multiple graphical processing units (GPU) and the discrete event component is executed across multiple central processing units (CPU).

Impact of Systematic Errors in Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Surveys of Galaxy Clusters

Future high-resolution microwave background measurements hold the promise of detecting galaxy clusters throughout our Hubble volume through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signature, down to a given limiting flux. The number density of galaxy clusters is highly sensitive to cluster mass through fluctuations in the matter power spectrum, as well as redshift through the comoving volume and the growth factor. This sensitivity in principle allows tight constraints on such quantities as the equation of state of dark energy and the neutrino mass. We evaluate the ability of future cluster surveys to measure these quantities simultaneously when combined with PLANCK-like CMB data. Using a simple effective model for uncertainties in the cluster mass-SZ flux relation, we evaluate systematic shifts in cosmological constraints from cluster SZ surveys. We find that a systematic bias of 10% in cluster mass measurements can give rise to shifts in cosmological parameter estimates at levels larger than the $1\sigma$ statistical errors. Systematic errors are unlikely to be detected from the mass and redshift dependence of cluster number counts alone; increasing survey size has only a marginal effect. Implications for upcoming experiments are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; accepted to JCAP; revised to match submitted versio